


Lost and Found

by Ninniacthel



Category: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure, Dumb idea I had, Family, Gen, I do love all games that came after the original, Minor Character Death, Minor Original Character(s), My First Work in This Fandom, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Please Don't Kill Me, Tags May Change, These are the tags for now
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-18 20:20:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 32,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29124063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ninniacthel/pseuds/Ninniacthel
Summary: When Genesis and Angeal find out that they have siblings, they decide to desert Shinra. And what will happen to Sephiroth? As he tries to figure out the reason why his friends left, he discovers a shocking secret that will turn his life upside down. And it isn't just about Project S either. How will Zack react when he finds out about his mentor's secret?
Kudos: 2





	1. Unexpected Discovery

**Author's Note:**

> Had the idea of the top three of SOLDIER having sisters because CC broke my heart.
> 
> Hollander might be a little OOC, I'm not really sure how to write this guy :/
> 
> Cross-posting from Fanfiction.Net

In a secret lab in Mako Reactor 5, two girls were contained in their respective mako tanks. Their faces were serene and peaceful, like nothing was troubling them at all. But they were not alone; a scientist was pacing nervously in front of the tanks and he was very worried about something.

The scientist then walked over to his table where a file lay, empty of its original contents, and Hollander knew who took them. The one SOLDIER he had convinced to defect from Shin-Ra in order to exact his revenge on the company; the one SOLDIER he did much to bring over to his side.

Genesis Rhapsodos.

Hollander looked at the auburn haired girl with mounting anxiety, "If Genesis and Angeal really find out about their sisters...Damn it, damn it all,"

Meanwhile, in an abandoned bath house at Modeoheim, a red leather clad man was reading some papers silently with mounting disbelief and rage. Genesis was frozen on the spot as he read the reports on Project G that he had snagged from Hollander's file earlier. He could not believe what he was reading and he rubbed his eyes, trying to make sure that the names glaring at him were really there: Christina Rhapsodos and Elain Hewley.

The rogue SOLDIER pulled out his PHS and hit the speed dial and a familiar voice could be heard on the other end, filled with surprise, _"Genesis?"_

"Angeal, we need to talk,"

* * *

In one of the VR training rooms in the Shin-Ra Building, Angeal snapped his PHS shut with an uneasy look on his face. He was not sure if he should believe what Genesis had said, but he still decided to meet up with his childhood friend as planned.

"Huh? Where are you going, Angeal?"

Glancing at Zack, Angeal simply said, "Training's over, there's something I need to do," and resumed his walk towards the exit.

Zack frowned and scratched his head in confusion, 'Something seems off about Angeal today...' He watched his mentor leave with an air of curiosity, 'What's gotten into him?'

_Time skip to Modeoheim..._

Angeal entered the bath house where Genesis was currently hiding in and looked around the seemingly empty structure. Just as Angeal was beginning to think that his friend had tricked him into coming for nothing, Genesis's voice cut through the silence behind him with the rage in it directed at someone else, "So, you came,"

Genesis stalked right up to Angeal and shoved some papers at him, "Read it,"

Angeal hesitantly took the papers and looked at them thoroughly, freezing on the spot when he too, caught sight of the names that were printed on them.

"Did you know?"

Genesis shook his head, "I had no idea until I snagged them from Hollander and read them. I'll take it from your reaction that you have no idea of your sister's existence either," Angeal wanted to crumple up the papers in his hands but forced down the feeling and shook his head to confirm Genesis's statement. He looked at the Red Commander and asked, "Do you know where they are?"

Genesis sighed and shook his head, " _My friend, the fates are cruel..._ I was planning on 'asking' Hollander, and I wanted you to do this with me. You have the right as much as I do. If they are really our sisters and Hollander messed with them..."

Angeal closed his eyes as a lump formed in his throat, he looked at Genesis and said, "I have so many questions I want to ask...Project G, my mother's involvement in this, everything. But..."

Genesis sighed, "Yes, it will have to wait, I'll fill you in on what I know later. But I do not know how much of that is the truth..."

Angeal straightened up, "First priority should be looking for our sisters, Genesis, do you know where Hollander is?"

Genesis's face darkened, "If my guess is right, he would be in his secret lab in Mako Reactor 5, meaning that we would have to go back...to Midgar."

Angeal smiled slightly, "I'll handle that,"

The Red Commander smirked and waved his hand towards the entrance in invitation, "Lead on,"

* * *

Zack lazily strolled down the corridors of Floor 49, having nothing to do since there were no assignments and no missions for him to take on. He entered the lounge, and was about to slump down on a random couch when he caught sight of his best buddy and changed his course.

"Heya, Kunsel,"

Kunsel smiled at Zack, "Thought you were still training?"

The spiky haired Second shook his head, "Nah, Angeal let me off early. Received some call and just left, saying that he had something to do..." Zack's voice trailed away, his thoughts wandering. He frowned, "Come to think of it, Angeal seemed really off after receiving the call, wonder who was that on the other end of the line,"

Kunsel snorted, "Didn't Angeal say the person's name?"

Zack looked sheepish, "Uh...maybe, I didn't catch it,"

The other Second Class snickered, "Zero-attention span, huh?"

"Shut up, sheesh,"

Zack groaned and stood up, stretching, "Damn it, all these training and no assignments. Like they're hanging me out to dry." He then began to do squats, causing Kunsel to chuckle: his friend never changed.

"You must be pretty busy with everyone off-base,"

Kunsel blinked and stood up as well, "Off-base? Wait, haven't you heard? There's been a mass desertion at SOLDIER,"

Zack stopped his motions, "Huh? When...how did that happen?"

Kunsel shrugged, "Don't know, I haven't figured it out myself, but it seems to have something to do with a missing First Class,"

Zack tilted his head to one side, "Missing First Class? Hmm..." he walked over to the large glass windows that showed the entire city beneath the Building and looked out of it. Then he saw something out of the corner of his eye on the Sector 5 Plate and squinted, trying to get a better look.

A red leather coat and a huge blade: the Buster Sword.

Zack released a noise of surprise and pressed his forehead to the glass, trying to make sure of what he saw.

Yep, no mistake, it was Angeal and Genesis, the one Angeal had mentioned to him many times before. And both were sneaking into the fifth reactor.

"Kunsel, take a look at that,"

The other SOLDIER stepped forward and did as Zack said, "What are they doing down there? The guy in the red coat...that's Genesis, the missing First,"

"Huh, I wonder..." Zack knew Genesis from the few times he had met the man in person, and mostly from the times Angeal spoke of him.

"Why are they snooping around? That is...unless they're doing something they don't want anyone to know and doesn't want to be seen."

Zack hummed at Kunsel's observation, his mind spinning with curiosity.

* * *

Genesis took charge the moment he and Angeal were in the reactor since he knew his way around. They went deep inside the structure searching for Hollander's lab and the man himself, since Genesis wanted him to 'do' an explanation. It was not long before they found the entrance to the secret lab and they heard muttering coming from inside.

Angeal stopped Genesis from going any farther and both hid themselves in a spot where they could easily see into the lab. What they saw made Genesis's blood boil: Hollander was injecting something into the auburn haired girl whom the SOLDIER duo guessed was Genesis's sister, Christina Rhapsodos, who was now lying on the operating table as the scientist worked on her.

Genesis growled lowly to himself and was about to move when Angeal stopped him, his eyes conveying the message that it was not the time for them to move yet.

They watched for a few more moments when Genesis finally could not take it anymore and shifted, rising to his feet and strolling right into the lab, causing Angeal to roll his eyes because his childhood friend was such a dramatic guy.

"Well, well, look what we have here...Hollander, you never told me you had...two extra test subjects to work on finding the cure, or is that a lie too?"

"Ge—Genesis!"

Angeal took this moment to reveal his presence, glaring at the man who was possibly his real father—not that he would see him as such, and said, "You have some explaining to do, Hollander."

Hollander sputtered incoherently as he tried to form an excuse, but failed. Genesis drew his Rapier casually and said, "I suppose this is about your little revenge on Hojo and the company, not really about me since I'm a failed experiment..."

Angeal stepped forward and held up his hand, cutting off Genesis nodding towards the operating table and said, "What is your purpose for doing this to them, Hollander? Wasn't me and Genesis enough?"

Hollander took a deep breath and began to rant, "Genesis was a _failed_ experiment...You're the perfect specimen...To exact my revenge on Shin-Ra, I need an army, an army superior to that of Hojo's creations! Hojo...that man, everything was always about him, him and his Project S! It wasn't enough for him to get recognized, he had to become head of the Science Department as well! You two can pass on your traits and abilities to other humans. With them, we'll create an army! An army that will destroy Shin-Ra!"

Turning towards his 'creations', Hollander said, "Join me, Angeal, together, we can bring down the company! And I will get the respect and recognition I deserve."

Genesis snorted, "You don't get it, do you? We came here to get our answers...and retrieve our sisters." He leveled his blade at the scientist, "As for revenge...you can do that on your own, I'm not interested in being cannon fodder. In other words...I quit!"

Hollander backed away from Genesis's advance with Rapier, "Y-You can't do that! I'm the only one who can cure your degradation, and when I do, I'll even give your sisters the cure—!"

"Unfortunately, I am no longer in need of your help, I'll simply find the cure on my own...the Gift of the Goddess." Genesis jerked his head over to the unconscious girls, "Angeal, get them," Turning his attention back to the cowardly scientist, Genesis advanced further and pressed Rapier's tip under Hollander's throat.

Angeal, with both girls slung over his shoulders, said, "Genesis, is this really necessary? We don't have to kill him..."

"And what, let him do as he pleases? I think not..." The Red Commander lowered his blade anyway, "Humph,"

Angeal walked towards the exit, "Let's go back to my room, we'll figure something out,"

Genesis shot Hollander one last glare before leaving with his friend.

* * *

The duo sneaked into the Building via the fire-escape stairway and they began the risky trek back to Angeal's apartment. It was very hard, since there were cameras nearly everywhere. But they managed since Genesis had a Materia with him that turned them invisible to the eyes of others and confused some of the cameras.

Upon reaching Angeal's apartment, said man laid the two girls down on his bed, and Genesis sat next to his unconscious sister, brushing back some hair that fell into her face, "How did this happen?"

Angeal smiled sadly, "I wish _I_ knew," he sat down on a chair next to the bed. "By the way, Project G..."

Genesis nodded and began to tell his childhood friend of all that he knows regarding the subject and Angeal listened intently. When Genesis was done, Angeal closed his eyes and leaned back into his chair with a sigh. "All that, just for the sake of power..."

Genesis huffed and pulled out Loveless, flipping through the pages once more, "Hey, don't you think they need a doctor? Not that I trust Shin-Ra's medical team anymore though,"

Angeal stood and began to leave, "I'll find someone trustworthy,"

Genesis simply gave a nod to indicate that he has heard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Crisis Core was what introduced me to the FFVII fandom. I understand there are people out there who played the original 1997 video game and prefers it over the other spinoff games. I also understand that everyone has different interpretation of the characters and the story, which includes what they believe is canon and what is not. That's okay. But please don't get mad at people who don't share the same ideals and views as you do. I've seen some rather heated discussions in regards to this topic and hope the toxicity doesn't spread to my work - or anyone's work who doesn't align with the reader's ideals.
> 
> Thank you for reading this long note :)


	2. Curiosity, Plans, and Revelations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beginning portions of the story was written with the help of watching gameplay cutscenes.

Zack slowly crept to Angeal's apartment, making sure that he was not seen by anybody, especially his mentor. But it seemed that luck was not on his side: "And what, SOLDIER Fair, do you think you're doing?"

The puppy nearly jumped out of his skin as he whirled around to see Sephiroth staring down at him with a raised eyebrow. "Uh, nothing! I was just going to see Angeal,"

The General's eyebrow crept higher, "And you needed to sneak around just to do that?"

"Uh..."

Sephiroth sighed and shook his head, "Go on ahead," he said before walking off to his own apartment, leaving a relieved Zack behind.

The Second continued his way to his mentor's apartment, knocked on the door, and waited.

The door swung open, and Angeal poked out his head, "Zack?"

"Heya, Angeal!"

Angeal cracked a smile, "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you! What happened in Mako Reactor 5?"

Angeal's heart nearly stopped, "What are you talking about?"

Zack rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, "Y'know, earlier down in Sector 5? I saw you and Genesis sneaking around down there."

Angeal took a deep breath, "Zack, I never left the Shin-Ra Building, in fact, I went to my office to settle some paperwork, and pick a couple missions for us. Besides, Genesis went MIA over a month ago, are you sure you're alright?"

Zack blinked, he was pretty sure that he saw Angeal and Genesis down in Sector 5, but the word 'missions' was what really caught his attention and distracted him, "Missions? What kind of missions?"

Angeal inwardly released a sigh of relief as he said, "The Director said he would give us the details tomorrow, so just get prepared, I'll see you then."

Zack nodded, "Right, see you!" he turned and left. He was riding the elevator back down to Floor 49 when he remembered his original objective and face-palmed, "Ugh, damn it!" He scratched his head as he thought back to the conversation earlier, "Hmm, seems like Angeal really has something to hide...I wonder what it is?"

* * *

Angeal returned to his room with relief etched over his features as Genesis spoke up, "What did the puppy want?"

Angeal shook his head and said, "We had been spotted by him down on the Plate and he wanted to know what was going on, but I managed to distract him with the mentioning of missions,"

Genesis chuckled in amusement, returning to his book, "You better hope that Lazard actually gives you a couple of missions to take on tomorrow then,"

Angeal gave his friend a weak smile before turning to the doctor working over the girls, "What is their condition?"

The doctor, identified as Dr Martinez by his tag, said, "You both pulled them out of the mako tanks just in time, they have a mild case of mako poisoning that could have been worse, but will survive. The mako levels in their bodies are high enough to be compared to Firsts due to the experiments conducted on them."

"Any idea what kind of experiments?"

"None that I know of, but I think it has something to do with SOLDIER,"

Angeal closed his eyes, repressing a shudder before opening his eyes again and saw that Genesis looked sick, "What about the degradation?"

Dr Martinez shook his head, "There's nothing I can do about that,"

The Red Commander sighed and asked, "How long will it take for them to wake up?"

"Three days, give or take. They will most likely be a little weak and disorientated, especially Miss Rhapsodos here: there are signs that say that her exposure to mako is longer than Miss Hewley."

Angeal nodded, "That will be all, thank you,"

Dr Martinez smiled faintly, "Happy to be of service, rest assured that your secret is safe with me,"

"Tread lightly among those you work with, especially the higher ups,"

The doctor gave a final nod before leaving and Angeal sank into his chair once more, deep in thought.

Genesis snapped his book shut and murmured, " _The wandering soul knows no rest_...They can't stay here in Shin-Ra, the chances of being discovered here is high and I'd rather not risk it."

Angeal grunted in agreement, "True, if they're with you, Shin-Ra won't find them so quickly and you'd be able to give them the cure for the degradation when you find it."

"Will you come with me? It'll be much easier to search for the cure if you did,"

Angeal sent the other Banoran a blank look, "Are you actually asking me to defect?"

Genesis raised an eyebrow, "Can you still remain loyal to Shin-Ra after discovering all of this?"

The younger Banoran sighed, "I...can't," Angeal's mind spun with hesitancy as his thoughts ran rampant. Suddenly, his PHS beeped and Angeal answered the call from Director Lazard, "Director?"

_"Angeal, I have a mission for you tomorrow, please be there for the briefing by then,"_

Genesis smirked as Angeal blinked in surprise but said, "Yes sir, could I bring Second Class Zack Fair along? I would also like to recommend him for First, sir."

_"Yes, you can, as for the recommendation...I'll think about it, anything else you'd like to add?"_

"No, sir, that will be all,"

The PHS beeped again as Angeal pocketed it, and Genesis laughed, "You got lucky right there! Are you serious about the puppy being First, though?"

Angeal smiled, "Yes, he already has the makings...and would be even better if he would pay attention at times,"

Genesis smirked once again, " _My friend, your desire is the bringer of life, the gift of the Goddess_ ,"

Angeal chuckled, "To Zack, maybe,"

The two friends shared a good laugh before turning serious once more. Genesis stood, "I'll take the girls with me back to Modeoheim, it's best if we leave now,"

Angeal rose up as well and said, "Right, let's get you out of here, I'll join you during tomorrow's mission,"

The Red Commander smiled, "Very well, I'll hold you to that,"

* * *

Zack shut his PHS and made his way to the Briefing Room where he was greeted by the Director, with Angeal sitting on one side. Lazard then tapped a few keys on the keyboard, causing a SOLDIER profile to show up on the main screen.

It was a picture of a familiar auburn haired First, with the words M.I.A flashing on the bottom of the picture.

"SOLDIER First Class, Genesis. A month ago, he went missing during a mission in Wutai. Know anything about this?"

Zack raised his hands slightly, "Not a clue!"

Angeal cast Zack a cautious look without the latter noticing as Lazard nodded in expectation of Zack's answer, "The mission is currently stuck in limbo, that's why we've decided to send you."

"Uh, to Wutai?"

"Yes, this war has gone on long enough."

Angeal, who had straightened up from his previous position, said, "I've recommended you for First," before mentally preparing himself for what the hyper Second would throw at him.

After Zack's little 'cuddly' moment, with Lazard trying to hide his smile, Angeal stood up and said, "Once you're packed, you'll leave at once,"

Lazard smiled and said, "I'll be joining you as well, I'm counting on you,"

Zack snapped to attention and said, "Sir!"

_Time skip to Wutai, after capturing Fort Tamblin..._

Zack and Angeal headed back to camp and met Lazard on the way. As Lazard praised Zack for his performance on the mission, several SOLDIERs came out of nowhere and attacked the trio.

Suddenly, Ifrit appeared and Zack had to deal with him. In all the chaos, Angeal slipped away quickly with one of the Genesis copies leading him to where the his friend was hiding, but not before witnessing the exchange between Sephiroth and his apprentice.

* * *

Angeal entered the apple juice factory outside of his hometown where Genesis had relocated to and said, "Didn't think you'd come back here,"

Genesis had a dark look on his face, "I needed more answers, so I came back to ask my 'parents'..."

Angeal looked shocked, "You killed them? How could you, Genesis!"

Genesis raised a hand, "Hear me out, Angeal, please."

"Banora was one of the many sites that had potential to host a reactor. The underground mines were built with this purpose in mind, with the village constructed to conceal the mines' existence. Shin-Ra employees were placed on the village board of trustees but eventually the company lost interest in the site and Banora became free. You and I were sent here specifically to live under Shin-Ra's surveillance, including your mother."

Angeal closed his eyes and sighed, "So your parents...are not your real parents?"

"I was adopted,"

The younger Banoran sighed softly once more, "It seems no one will ever be free of the company once involved..."

Genesis hummed in agreement before rising from his seat on the floor and leading Angeal to a corner of the room he was in where their sisters were placed.

"They have been stirring for some time, but it will be one more day before they wake up,"

Angeal knelt next to his sister and caressed her face gently, before rising up and leaving, "I'm going to look for my mother,"

The Red Commander smiled lightly, "Come back soon, Angeal,"

The wielder of the Buster Sword smiled slightly as he left.

_The house of the Hewleys..._

Gillian Hewley closed her eyes, on the verge of tears after Angeal had confronted her regarding the matter of Elain Hewley.

"Angeal..."

The SOLDIER of honor shook his head sadly, "Mother, please tell me the truth. Who is my father? Why did Hollander do what he did?"

Gillain sighed and said, "I met Hollander when I was working with the Science Department. I was infused with Jenova cells and when I met your father and became pregnant, I had you. Elain was born a year after you, and Hollander took her when he found out."

"Hollander is...a power hungry man, he does not care for anything but his pride and his successful creations. He is equally as ruthless as Hojo but he is also a coward. That is why Elain was taken so that he could further his...research. As for your father..."

Here Gillain stopped and shook her head slowly, the tears finally breaking through. Angeal felt an ominous amount of dread rising within him, his father could not possibly be... Could he...?

Gillian wiped her eyes and spoke with a tone of heavy regret and grief, "Your father committed suicide upon discovering my participation in the experiments and after Elain was taken. He could not believe that his own son was the 'product' of an experiment and his daughter taken for more of it. Before he died...he did his last act to you as your father: he forged the Buster Sword for you."

It was Angeal's turn to close his eyes as grief overtook him, the two Hewleys sat together in silence as the atmosphere thickened in sorrow. After a moment, Angeal drew the Buster and touched his forehead reverently against the flat of the blade before replacing it on his back, glad that his father was someone else. And even if he did not know him, Angeal could rest easy now that he knew his father was not Hollander as he had thought.

"Mother, do you know anything about Christina Rhapsodos?"

Gillian sighed softly, "Ah...the poor child, she is the fraternal twin of Genesis. Both were given to Hollander since their true parents could not support them due to being poor. After Genesis was labeled failed, Hollander took Christina and continued experimenting on her, trying to find out what went wrong with Genesis."

Angeal coughed, the information really sickened him, "Genesis won't take it well..."

Gillain shook her head, "I wonder how anyone can,"

After staying a little and enjoying his mother's culinary skills, Angeal bade his mother goodbye before returning to the factory and telling Genesis everything he found out from his mother.


	3. Mission in Banora

It has been two months ever since Angeal defected and joined Genesis, so far there had been no news of them at all. Sephiroth sighed heavily as he snapped his PHS shut, having just finished a conversation with Lazard who wanted him to take on a mission in Banora, but he could not do it.

He did not want to take on any missions regarding his best friends right now. What if he had to take on a mission that requires him to bring in his friends, alive or dead? What if he was ordered to kill them on sight? No, he could not do that.

Not to his best friends, anyway.

So he pushed off the mission to Zack, certain that Zack could do better and bring Angeal back, and with him, Genesis. After all, Zack is Angeal's apprentice.

The Silver General closed his eyes and walked back to his office, the only place where he can be without anyone bothering him under the pretense that he was doing paperwork.

'Genesis...Angeal...why?'

* * *

Zack and Tseng arrived in Banora and headed straight off to Genesis's home. The place was nice and quite homey, but it seemed sort of empty. Zack looked around as he listened to Tseng's statement and caught sight of a large tree.

A dumbapple tree.

Zack gazed at the tree as his mentor's words from that fateful day came back to him, _"But I never stole from that tree, because the wealthy man's son was my friend."_

Seemingly knowing what Zack was thinking about, Tseng elaborated, "They weren't mere acquaintances. They grew up together, and were best friends."

Zack scowled slightly, "So Genesis deserts and gets his best friend Angeal to join him...is that it?"

Tseng was unfazed by the SOLDIER Second's slight change in attitude, "Sephiroth believes that's the case," The Turk's sharp eyes noticed something under a tree and said, "There. A gravestone, still very new."

Zack turned his gaze to the tree and sure enough there was a small set of stones on top of recently turned earth. "Zack, go find Angeal's house. I'll check the grave."

The SOLDIER let his eyes linger on the grave for a second before leaving to do as he was told.

Upon locating Angeal's house, Zack returned to Tseng who was staring silently at the bodies that the grave contained, or what was left of them. The Turks' corpses looked like it was quite recent though.

The head of the Turks wordlessly shoveled the upturned earth back on top of the corpses and put the stones back before nodding to Zack and they set off to Angeal's home.

Feeling a little queasy, Zack could not help but ask, "Ugh, so Turks always do this stuff?"

"Someone has to do it,"

Zack frowned, "Must be rough," he muttered as he thought of the Turks' job and their pay.

Tseng smirked slightly and waved, figuring out what Zack was thinking, "Don't worry, we're paid much better than you are."

The hyperactive SOLDIER froze for a moment before crying out his disbelief which only served to amuse the Turk Director.

* * *

Gillian Hewley lifted her head and looked at the stranger in her house with slight caution, "Can I help you?" She knew that the person standing before her was from SOLDIER but she did not know who and what business he had with her.

The SOLDIER looked a little awkward before he opted for a greeting before saying, "Are you Angeal's mother?"

Gillian watched the SOLDIER blankly and waited for him to continue.

"Um, my name is Zack,"

That name rang a bell and Gillian asked curiously, "Are you Zack, the puppy?"

The SOLDIER looked incredulous, "Excuse me?"

Gillian chuckled at Zack's reaction and spoke of Angeal's letter before reciting the words in it, causing Zack to groan out loud and grumble, "Thanks, Angeal," while Gillian herself laughed a little.

The widow then asked a couple questions which she already knew the answers to but still did so to conceal the fact that she knew something regarding Genesis and Angeal. All the while, she observed her son's apprentice, he seemed genuinely concerned about Angeal's welfare.

Gillian sighed as she remembered Genesis's little episode in the village, killing everyone but her a month ago and she knew why he did it. He was so upset with the news that Angeal brought to him regarding his sister that he took it out on the village. The poor, poor, boy.

"Is Angeal...?"

"He came here," The widow admitted, "But, he left his sword and went off somewhere." Gillian took great care not to say where.

Zack turned and stared at the Buster leaning against the wall, still in its pristine condition.

Gillian smiled faintly as Zack took a closer look at the sword, "That sword represents our family's honor,"

"I see...no wonder...He never uses this sword, really ever."

Gillian smiled inwardly, 'I know that,' as Zack approached her and said, "I'll take care of Angeal, you should go and hide somewhere."

"Don't be concerned, Genesis...cannot harm me." The widow thought back to the day when her son brought forth her daughter to visit, and the time when Genesis had asked her if she knew anything regarding the degradation that plagued them. The Red Commander had shown no hostility towards her, only desperation and in need of a cure.

Zack released a sound of affirmation before he left, glancing at the Buster as he did so.

* * *

Angeal peeked out of the windows of the factory and spoke up, "Zack just entered my mother's house,"

Genesis frowned, lowering Loveless, "Here already? That's fast, anyone else with him?"

The dark haired girl next to Angeal said, "I noticed a man in a dark suit with him earlier, he didn't enter the house though," Turning to face the Red Commander, Elain Hewley wondered, "Is he a Turk?"

Genesis nodded, "He is, and I bet my wing that it's Tseng,"

"Head of the Turks, right?"

Everyone looked at the auburn haired girl who was sitting behind Genesis, she still had a slight pallor to her skin and looked a bit weak.

Genesis smiled and patted her head, "You got that right, sister,"

Angeal was looking out the window again, "Definitely Tseng, no Turk ties their hair like he does,"

"Then we're done for, unless we do something, no doubt he has already seen the grave."

Genesis closed his eyes and tilted his head back, "We'll be moving back to Modeoheim, Shin-Ra will definitely burn this place down after all that I've done. I still need to coordinate the rest of the SOLDIERs that came with us as they will be continuing their assaults on Shin-Ra."

Turning to look at his childhood friend, Genesis continued, "Angeal, take your mother to the underground mines when the puppy is out of the house. They will head over here, and I'll confront them. Bring Elain with you. After that, we'll just play-act like we planned."

Christina Rhapsodos looked at her brother, "What about me?"

Genesis glanced at the SOLDIER that was inside the active copy machine then back at his sister, "He'll fly you out of here when he's ready, in the mean time, just stay out of sight,"

Christina nodded and with Elain's help, she melted into the shadows.

"Zack just left the house, Elain, let's go,"

The younger Hewley nodded and followed her brother out of the factory, Genesis smiled darkly as he immersed himself in Loveless once more.

It is show time.

* * *

Gillian looked up when Angeal and Elain entered the house, "Is it time?"

Angeal grabbed the Buster and swung it over his back, "They're heading to the factory, we need to move now."

Gillian stood up and took a big drawstring bag that contained her clothes and what little belongings she had and walked over to her children who took her to the underground mines where she would hide out for a while before they left for Modeoheim.

"We'll come back real soon, mother," Elain said as she hugged the ageing woman.

Gillian smiled and hugged her daughter before they returned with haste to the factory.

_Meanwhile, in the factory..._

Genesis laughed a bit as he recited Loveless, Act 1 with his usual dramatics, oh, he was definitely enjoying this. He then said, "Settle down, Zack the Puppy," just to annoy said SOLDIER.

Predictably enough, Zack reacted with a glare and a low hiss of anger as Tseng rushed in. After inspecting the copy machine, the Turk Director said with cold anger, "The grave at the house...we found the remains of our people there as well."

Genesis smirked and waved his hand lazily, "It didn't take much to have them send false reports. Just some mild threats..." Tseng stalked foward as Zack gasped but he recomposed himself and growled, "They would have done that anyway! At least your parents would have."

The Red Commander tensed and glared at the Puppy through the mass of hair covering the right side of his face. He was feeling fine...until Zack mentioned his so-called 'parents'.

Pocketing Loveless, Genesis rose up to his feet, dusted his coat off and said bitterly, "My 'parents' betrayed me. They had always betrayed me, from the very beginning." he glared at Zack, 'What does he know? What do they all know?'

Raising a hand, Genesis charged up a fire spell and snarled, "What do you know? Shin-Ra lapdogs!" He threw the spell at Tseng who got slammed against the copy machine before falling to his knees, gasping for breath, flames licking around his frame.

Zack grunted in anger and drew his sword, getting ready to fight the rouge First. Genesis prepared himself for the 'face-off' with Angeal that was going to happen real soon as Zack prepared to aim his sword at Genesis.

That is when Angeal came back with Elain in tow and Genesis thought, 'Play-acting time,' as Angeal stood in front of Zack with the latter's sword in his hand.

"Welcome, partner,"

Genesis almost laughed at the look Zack was giving Elain who was standing next to him. Angeal then raised the Shin-Ra issued blade and mock-glared at his friend.

"I see...you've finally made your decision. I'll respect your wishes, old friend. However..."

The Red Commander walked past Angeal, "Can you really _live_ on that side?" and left the factory.

Angeal lowered the blade and turned to leave as well, when Zack cried out his name and tried to get close but Angeal shoved him back and stabbed his apprentice's blade in the ground between them. It pained Angeal to see the look of confusion and hurt on Zack's face but he turned on heel and left with Elain following him after she discreetly made sure that Christina was still out of sight and not spotted by Tseng who was still recovering on the floor.

Zack grabbed his blade and furiously chased after his mentor, a question burning in the back of his mind.

Who was the girl who came in with Angeal?

* * *

After revealing his wing to Zack, Genesis took off into the skies and made it look like as if he had left, but in reality, he went back to the factory to check on his sister. Tseng was already gone from the building, so that left the new Genesis Copy available to carry Christina and the trio left Banora and headed to their planned rendezvous point, which is Mideel, to wait for Angeal and the others.

Angeal, Elain and Gillian were climbing the up the steep slopes near the village when the whir of the Shin-Ra choppers could be heard and they quickly hid in some surrounding foliage, watching the choppers as they headed towards the village and began bombing the place down, destroying everything and leaving nothing behind.

Gillian watched sadly as it happened, Angeal gave his mother a gentle squeeze on the shoulder and Elain held her mother's bag close to her, "At least we've still got some dumbapples to share," Elain murmured as the orchard turned into a sea of fire.

Angeal watched his hometown burn with an unreadable expression on his face, "Let's go to the rendezvous point," he said quietly before leaving with his only family following behind.

In Mideel, Genesis and Christina watched as the smoke from the flames turned the sky black with all the ash that was clouding it.

The Red Commander huffed, "Good riddance," while his sister watched on before finally saying, "Is it really necessary to burn down a village just to cover up your crimes?"

The Genesis Copy next to her shrugged, "It's Shin-Ra, they'd do anything to paint themselves as the good guys in the eyes of the public."

The younger Rhapsodos looked sadly at the disaster ahead, "At least the place is already empty..."

The three mako-infused humans silently watched the destruction of Banora as they waited for their other friends in Mideel's only inn.

* * *

Zack walked to the edge of a cliff near the village as B1-Alpha Helicopter 09 swerved by to pick him up. The door of the chopper opened to reveal Tseng alive and well. The SOLDIER Second then turned to face the burning village and thought of Angeal when he saw a Banora White shrivel up and fall off its branch.

Clenching his fists, Zack closed his eyes and stalked to the chopper where Tseng helped him get settled. The SOLDIER tried to calm the roiling emotions in him as they made their way back to Midgar.

As they traveled, Zack wondered who was the girl who showed up with his mentor. She bore similar features to Angeal and even if she had bangs covering her forehead, Zack could still see the similarities in his mind's eye.

"Hey Tseng, what do you know about the girl who showed up with Angeal in the factory?"

The Turk looked troubled, "I do not know, it is safe to assume that she is related to Angeal since they bear so many similarities, but then again, maybe not. I'll have to check the archives and databases back in Midgar."

Zack frowned, "That's weird, Angeal never ever told me that he had a sister..."

Tseng nodded, "I also noticed the mako glow in her eyes, it's enough to consider her a First. That means...it has something to do with the Science Department. But all of that just doesn't match up together."

Zack's frown deepened, "Maybe it has something to do with that time when they sneaked into the fifth reactor..."

Tseng looked at the SOLDIER sharply, "They?"

Zack then explained to the Turk Director of the incident months ago and why he did not report, "I thought I was seeing things...but...now, I"m not so sure,"

Tseng closed his eyes, his mind already spinning away.

* * *

Upon disembarking from B1-A 09, Zack immediately sprinted off to the SOLDIER floor. He needed to talk to Kunsel and he needed to do it now.

Seeing his best buddy emerging from a corridor, Zack ran up to him and called out, "Kunsel! This is really important, we need to talk."

Startled, Kunsel turned around and said, "Woah, dude, slow down, you just got back from your mission and you haven't even reported to Lazard yet."

Zack groaned and bent down to catch his breath, "I have to talk to you, like, now. Something happened on the mission and—"

Kunsel clapped his friend's shoulder and cut him off, "Look, we'll talk in my room, so let's get your report out of the way, alright?"

Zack nodded and the two headed to Lazard's office.

_Kunsel's room..._

"So, what's the important thing you wanted to tell me?"

Zack took a deep breath and said, "Angeal's got a sister," shocking Kunsel for a full minute.

"Excuse me?"

"Well, at least that's what Tseng thinks..."

Kunsel frowned, "Just because she looks like Angeal doesn't mean she's his...y'know,"

Zack sighed, "Yeah, I know that..." he lay down on Kunsel's couch and fell deep in thought, "I wonder if it had anything to do with the Reactor Incident..."

Kunsel looked up, "Well, did you notice anything...abnormal, on the girl?"

Zack flipped up from his position in remembrance, "Tseng said he noticed mako in her eyes and that it was enough to consider her a First,"

Kunsel looked thoughtful, "Like as if she had the First Class shot series...In that case, it may have something to do with the Science Department."

The Puppy nodded, "That's what Tseng said too, he just wasn't sure because none of this seems to make any sense."

The other SOLDIER nodded, "It doesn't, but I remember something I had in all those files...Hang on, let me get my laptop."

Zack chuckled as Kunsel left. He was glad that he is friends with Kunsel, because if you wanted any information or dirt regarding Shin-Ra and its employees, Kunsel had the answer to everything. And all the precious information Kunsel had gathered was in his laptop.

Kunsel reappeared with his laptop and asked, "The one who usually treats Angeal is Hollander right?"

Zack nodded, "Yeah, you got Hollander's stuff in there?"

Kunsel grinned, "Yep," he booted up the device and hacked into his own system, drawing out the files he needed and opening them.

"You know, I've never ever opened Hollander's stuff after getting them, except for the Project G reports."

"Project G?"

"Never mind that, let's look for your mystery girl and see if she's in all these reports,"

Silence fell between the two SOLDIERs as Kunsel opened file after file to find the right report.

"Here, is this her?"

Zack blinked at the picture staring back at him, "Yeah!" he leaned forward as Kunsel wordlessly pointed at two words: Elain Hewley.

Zack and Kunsel looked at each other, "Wow,"

Kunsel returned to the report and scanned it himself, "Naturally, it's related to Project G,"

Zack face-palmed, "Alright, _what_ is Project G?"

The other Second could not help but laugh at Zack's expression before he became serious again and explained to Zack of Project G, S and Jenova while pulling up the respective files on said subjects.

When Kunsel was done explaining, Zack felt sick, he looked at his best friend with a deadpan expression and asked, "How in Gaia did you get all this?"

Kunsel smiled faintly, "I have my ways,"

"Ugh, you're as creepy as a Turk,"

Kunsel rolled his eyes and closed all the files and shut down his laptop. "So, in other words, Elain is Angeal's sister and was experimented on by Hollander."

Zack grimaced, "This is really sick..." and fell back onto the couch. He rubbed his eyes and sighed, determined to find out more about his mentor's mysterious sister.

* * *

Genesis toweled his hair dry as he exited the shower and saw everyone enjoying Gillian's dumbapple pie. Christina smiled and handed him a plate, "Want some?"

Genesis smiled and accepted the plate of dumbapple pie from his sister after hanging his towel on the back of a chair. Everyone ate their pie silently as Genesis contemplated their next move.

"Hey, Genesis, you know Modeoheim is on the other side of the Planet, right?"

Genesis looked at Angeal and nodded, "I know that, which means it'll take us at least three months to get there, two if we're fast enough. Unless we steal one of Shin-Ra's choppers I don't see any other way to get there faster. On top of all that we still need to find the cure."

Upon hearing that, Christina nudged the Copy, who gave her a map and the younger Rhapsodos spread it out on the bed, "Brother, take a look."

Everyone crowded around the bed and Christina pointed to a spot north-west of Mideel, "Mrs Hewley told me that this is where the Temple of the Ancients is located. Perhaps you could find an answer to our degradation there?"

Angeal shook his head, "You need some sort of key to get in. Besides, it's only a temple...we could try our luck in the Forgotten City as we go to Modeoheim since it was the capital of the Ancients. There's bound to be something left behind."

Genesis gave his friend a strange look, "How in the name of the Goddess did you know that? And why not the temple? The Goddess could possibly be there,"

Angeal chuckled at Genesis's expression, "The Turks do all kinds of odd jobs other than just assassination and espionage, I just happened to hear them talking about it in passing, probably did it for the Science Department since they're so intent on finding the Promised Land, whatever that is."

Genesis huffed, "Fine, the temple is out of the question then, the Forgotten City it is." he sighed heavily, "I still believe that the Gift of the Goddess is the cure,"

Gillian laid a hand on the Red Commander's shoulder, "Reenacting the play isn't going to help and the Gift could be anything. From an object to a potion—it could be anything."

The elder Rhapsodos sighed once more and nodded, "Thank you, Mrs Hewley," he ran a hand through his hair and decided to tell everyone of how they would be getting to Modeoheim.

"Alright, we can start off from Fort Condor the next morning, the people there are kind of anti-Shin-Ra so we don't have to worry about them. From Condor, we have to go to Junon because I don't feel like going under the Mythril Mines—"

"They say that a Midgar Zolom is terrorizing the area, so it's pretty much empty." Elain cut in and looked to her brother for his opinion. Angeal looked thoughtful, "Junon and the mines are the only places close to Condor...I think Junon would be better since we could gather supplies there as long as we stay inconspicuous."

Genesis nodded to Angeal and continued, "Besides, I'd rather not risk any of you getting hurt by fighting a 30 feet tall Zolom, it could trigger your degradation early and we can't let that happen."

"From Junon we will have no choice but to bypass Midgar and hope we don't get spotted—"

"I could always create a diversion,"

Genesis looked at the Copy and shook his head, "Can't risk it, I need all of you alive to deal with Shin-Ra and possibly deal with Hollander."

Angeal frowned, "You're still going to kill him? If you do, Hojo will get out of control since he will no longer have a rival."

Genesis rolled his eyes, "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, 'Geal, for now, let's just focus on getting to Modeoheim and finding the cure."

"After bypassing Midgar, we'll head straight off to the Forgotten City and when we have found the cure, we'll go to Modeoheim and plan our next move."

Elain sighed softly, "Sounds easy, but it's really gonna be hard and tedious."

Christina smiled at her friend, "It happens, Elain, it happens."

Angeal laid both hands on the girls' shoulders while looking at Genesis and said, "We should train these two how to fight, at least they will be able to defend themselves during the journey and won't need our full protection."

Genesis nodded, "Very well, _my friend, your desire is the bringer of life, the Gift of the Goddess_." Here Angeal and Christina rolled their eyes and the Red Commander laughed, "Let's get some sleep, we'll need it."

And so the party of six retired to their respective rooms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kunsel's role is inspired by Rewrite the Past's (FF.Net, a collab account) story In Love and War. It makes sense as Kunsel is sort of the NPC in the game where he provides Zack with all the information he needs for his next step as well as random gossip.
> 
> Here's the link to the story if anyone's interested. Sadly, it's unfinished and the authors do not seem to be updating this story anymore. However, it's still a really good story and I love the way they wrote the characters!
> 
> https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7153242/1/In-Love-and-War


	4. Journey and Investigation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our AWOL SOLDIER party traveling while Shin-Ra operatives try to find them.

A party of six could be seen near Mideel's Grasslands, they had set up camp there and four of them were currently sparring each other while the other two were resting from their walk from Mideel.

"Keep it up, you're improving!"

Genesis swung at his sister's side and she dodged quickly, flipping over and lashing out with her fists which struck the Red Commander's right shoulder, pushing him back a little but Genesis retaliated quickly with a sharp strike to Christina's stomach, sending her flying back and crashing on the ground.

Christina groaned and climbed back up, "Damn it," before charging her brother once more. On the other side of the two, Angeal and Elain were also fighting, exchanging blows at a rapid speed, but not fast enough to match up to the speed of a SOLDIER.

'Keep right, dodge, punch, swing, parry..."

Elain's thoughts were on autopilot as she fought her brother, noting down her moves as she analyzed Angeal's. She slowly lost herself in her thoughts though, and was beaten by the SOLDIER of honor.

Angeal smiled and shook his head as he extended a hand to his sister and said, "Focus, Elain, focus."

Elain smiled sheepishly, "Yeah..."

"What were you thinking earlier?"

"My moves? And analyzing yours..."

Angeal shook his head, "You have to do that subconsciously, you can't expect to focus on a fight when you're thinking of your own attacks. You have to observe the enemy and exploit their weakness—if they have one, that is. You got it right on the analyzing part, but don't get lost in your thoughts so easily."

Elain nodded and slid into her battle stance, "Let's give it another shot," with that, the fight continued.

_Time skip..._

For the fifth time, Christina was on her back, _again_. "Ughhh, crap." She tried to get up but failed and decided to be content by just lying there. Genesis smiled and walked up to where his sister had landed and said, "Want to catch a break?" the SOLDIER First himself hardly broke a sweat. "That would be nice, thanks, Gen," Genesis pulled his sister up and helped her walk over to their campsite, Angeal and Elain following behind.

"Here, you four must be very hungry," Gillian ladled some broth into bowls that the widow packed before leaving Banora and served them to the pair of siblings.

"Thanks, mom,"

"Thanks, Mrs Hewley,"

Silence filled the area for awhile as the two pairs of siblings ate their late lunch. That is when a loud beeping noise emanated from Angeal's pocket, startling everyone and they froze. Angeal slowly reached for his pocket and took out the offending item which turned out to be his PHS.

"What is it?" Elain looked nervous, Angeal gingerly flipped open the device and sighed in relief, he cast the others an apologetic look, "It was a notification from the mission log," the SOLDIER was about to close the device when he saw what the new mission was really all about.

"Damn,"

Genesis tensed and Angeal said, "Shin-Ra is sending out a team of SOLDIERs to give the areas surrounding Banora a sweep, we have to move,"

"Trying to sweep us out, for sure," The Red Commander muttered grudgingly before he ordered everyone to pack up and move. In less than ten minutes the party of six were ready to go and began moving swiftly across the Grasslands. They encountered a couple of monsters which was quickly dealt with by the Copy and Angeal before arriving at the shores as the sun was setting down.

"So, how are we gonna cross?"

Christina glanced at her brother as he smiled darkly, ruffling the feathers of his brought out wing, "My wing, how else?" "But Angeal can't fly, that makes four of us who can't fly and two of you who can," Elain protested, "If you and Nico—" here the younger Hewley nodded at the Copy, "Fly back and forth just to take us across, we'll be losing a lot of time and Shin-Ra may spot us from the skies easily if they choose to send in some choppers."

Genesis thought for a moment and sighed, "I did not want this to happen so early...but, Angeal, can you bring out your wing?" Said SOLDIER looked startled, "What? I don't even know how I'm supposed to do that,"

The Red Commander smiled slightly and said, "You can feel it inside, you can tell that it's folded behind your back. Focus on the feeling of flying, imagine that you have wings...that sort of thing. That's how I brought mine out and it worked." Here Genesis's smile faded, "But it will trigger your degradation early..."

Angeal gazed at his childhood friend and said solemnly, "For my sister and my mother I will do it. After all, we might find the cure,"

"And if we don't?"

The SOLDIER of honor shrugged before closing his eyes and focusing his thoughts on flying, feathers, and etcetera... It took quite some time before something twinged on Angeal's right shoulder, he immediately latched onto that feeling and began to slowly get a grasp on the entire shape and size of his extra appendage, or rather, appendages.

"Huh,"

"What?" Everyone chorused together in curiosity, "I have two wings on my right side," Angeal mused as he continued his attempts to bring out his wings and succeeded, after a brief moment of strain. Angeal grunted as the skin behind his back split open and two white wings unfurled from it, blood seeping out of the open fissure.

"Woah...they're beautiful," Elain murmured as she stared at her brother's wings in awe. Angeal blinked at his sister, "You think so?"

"I know so,"

Everyone looked at Gillian who was gazing at her son with a smile on her face. "Okay! So, me, Commander Rhapsodos and Commander Hewley can fly now, problem solved. Can we please get a move on?" Nico, the Copy, bounced a bit on the balls of his feet nervously.

Soft laughter broke out from Genesis and he agreed, "Let's go, guys, Nico, I trust you to take care of my sister," he then gently swung the younger Hewley into his arms and took flight. Angeal smiled and reached out for his mother as Nico once again, like that time in Banora, carried the auburn haired female and they began their journey to Fort Condor.

* * *

Tseng of the Turks leaned back in his chair, allowing a tiny sigh to escape from his lips. He had opened all the files that were available to him and yet he could not find a single thing on the mystery girl in Banora. He had also tried to access Hojo's files but he simply did not have the clearance to do so and hacking into them would only bring out more unnecessary questions.

And Tseng hates not knowing something.

" _Troublesome..._ "

Tseng bit out his frustration in his native tongue before dejectedly turning his attention to all the other reports on his desk when he noticed new mail in the SOLDIER side. Upon clicking on the link and reading the mail, Tseng instantly grabbed his PHS and dialed a familiar number.

"Zack,"

_"Hey, Tseng! What's up?"_

"Have you heard of the latest SOLDIER mission?"

_"Uh, yeah, why?"_

"Do you know what that means?"

There was a pregnant pause on the other end before Zack slowly answered, _"You think that Angeal and the others are still somewhere nearby? That's why they're sending out a search party, right?"_

"Very good, and most likely to tie up any lose ends that have been left unattended to. The reason I called is because I saw that your friend, Kunsel, is going on that mission."

Tseng could practically see the startled and surprised look on Zack's face on the other end and had to suppress a smile.

 _"Uhh, yeeaahhh? And, what has it got to do with me?"_ Zack sounded lost from the way he dragged out the first two words.

"Tell Kunsel to be alert and look for any clues regarding our mission in Banora yesterday, I want to know the true identity behind the girl."

 _"Hmm, okay, ya got it!"_ Zack cheerfully answered before hanging up.

Tseng smiled and relaxed slightly, turning to his other work with more ease knowing that someone will be keeping an eye out for details and clues.

* * *

"Spread out and find them! If they're not there, then just patrol around and make sure there's nothing suspicious left behind, got it?!"

"Sir!"

The few SOLDIERs on this mission fanned out with some infantrymen as they began to carry out their objective. The infantrymen came with them because SOLDIER was really shorthanded right now, what with all the deserters.

Luckily for Kunsel, he was assigned in Mideel, so he could easily fish out whatever Zack wanted him to. After everyone else had spread out to the other parts of the town, Kunsel did the logical thing and headed straight for the inn because he knew that by this time their adversaries would have already escaped town.

When he arrived, he immediately began interrogating the innkeeper, "Excuse me, but have you received any new guests lately?"

The innkeeper, a portly man, looked nervous and surprised at the same time as he stared at the SOLDIER in front of him. Nervous because he knew he was going to be interrogated and surprised because he totally had not expected this question.

"Um, yes, six of them, in fact. One of them seemed to be SOLDIER and there was...Commander Hewley and Commander Rhapsodos with two girls and a woman. They left real early this morning and haven't come back since."

'So they _did_ come here, and left... _two_ girls though, the woman must be Angeal's mother.' Kunsel then casually leaned on the counter, "Tell me about the girls, describe them,"

The innkeeper swallowed, "Right, well, the first one looked a lot like Commander Hewley, and the second one looked like...well, she looked _exactly_ like Commander Rhapsodos in terms of appearances and seemed a little sick, like as if she just recovered from something. Oh, and the SOLDIER had a black wing sprouting out of his right shoulder."

Kunsel's eyes widened behind his helmet when he heard that, 'No way! Genesis has a sister too?! And the wing thing must be some sort of glitch from the Jenova experiments, but...right, the SOLDIER's a Copy.' Composing himself, Kunsel carried on questioning, "Did you notice anything weird about the girls?"

"Hmm, oh yeah, they had the same mako glow you SOLDIER types have," Here the innkeeper chuckled nervously, hoping that the information he supplied would be enough.

Kunsel was silent for a moment before thanking the innkeeper for his time. Upon exiting the inn, the Second typed in the info he gathered into his PHS and sent it all to Zack before resuming his duties.

Kunsel knew that he, Zack and Tseng were really treading in deep waters now. Whoever the girls are, they definitely had something to do with the Science Department, especially with the Jenova Project.

_Back in Midgar..._

Zack was reading the message that Kunsel just sent him with blank shock. Angeal has a sister and now even Genesis of all people has a twin! What is this world coming to? Shaking his head, the usually bouncy Second whispered, "I can't believe this..." before forwarding message to Tseng.

As Zack waited for the Turk's reply, he ran through all the events that led up to this in his head, 'First, Genesis defects for a personal reason, thus the appearance of copies. Then, he must have discovered the girls' existence and told Angeal, the girls must have been found and freed somewhere, and they decided to run off because they want to protect the girls from Shin-Ra...understandable, but what am I going to say to Sephiroth? Damn it! Should I even tell him?'

Zack's PHS vibrated and the SOLDIER quickly answered the call from Tseng, "You got anything?"

_"I see now, it's definitely tied to the Science Department, but I don't have clearance to access the files I want,"_

Zack hesitated for a moment, 'Should I tell him about Kunsel's laptop? After all, he has all the information in there...' "Kunsel has it, he's got the reports and everything,"

There was a pause before Tseng spoke, _"I'm guessing that he hacked into the Science Department's database,"_

"Uh, yeah, I think so,"

_"I want them, meet me in my office,"_

With that, the call cut off and Zack was left at a loss of what to tell his best friend when he came back to find that his precious treasure trove was gone. Knowing how Turks can be, Zack just groaned out loud and smacked his forehead, "Ain't gonna make this easy for me, isn't he?"

Sighing, the SOLDIER hit a quick text to his best friend before heading off to Kunsel's room to get his laptop.

* * *

_Unknown location..._

In a semi dark room, a silver haired girl was inside an active mako tank, silver locks floating around her frame as she breathed evenly. Her eyes opened for a second, allowing her to see a blurred out science laboratory as pain seized her body once more.

Closing her eyes, the girl felt a sense of desperation and hope as she latched onto a presence that she had found using the Jenova cells inside her. Knowing that she would not be awake for long, the girl pushed her emotions through the connection to the presence and sent one word along with it: Help!

_The skies above the sea between the eastern continent and the island chain where Mideel is located..._

The party of six were flying smoothly overhead, having encountered no obstacles so far. Christina was enjoying the ride when she felt pain striking her head all of a sudden.

"Ugh! Ouch,"

"Are you alright?" Genesis asked, concerned, as everyone cast worried looks at the younger Rhapsodos. "Yeah, just a sudden flash of pain, that's all," Christina murmured, touching her temple. "You sure it's nothing, Christi?" Elain asked her friend.

"Yeah..."

Even as the auburn haired girl was saying this, she felt a rush of emotions that were not hers, a riptide of fear and desperation when she heard a soft, frightened, "Help!" in her head. A flash of something appeared in her mind's eye but it was gone before Christina could make anything out of it. But she was sure it was some sort of hidden dark room and that there was someone out there, calling for help.

But who?

A little tired, Christina closed her eyes and decided to take a short nap as the setting sun threw a soft light around them.


	5. Deep Waters and Scary Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christina has a nightmare.

_"Infinite in mystery is the Gift of the Goddess. We seek it thus, and take to the skies. Ripples form on the water's surface, the wandering soul...knows no rest."_

Christina woke to the soft murmur of her brother reciting Act I of Loveless, music to her ears though it could get a little repetitive at times, considering how many times Genesis quotes from the poem.

The younger auburn haired blinked as she realized that she was dipping downwards, "Are we there already?"

"We are, you slept for quite a while, Elain only just started dozing off, you know," Nico smiled at the girl he was carrying as he carefully dropped towards the ground, Fort Condor looming ahead. "Woah, I guess..." Christina murmured as she glanced at her brother who smiled at her while maintaining his grip on the younger Hewley as he, too, touched down on the earth. Angeal came last with his mother still awake in his arms.

The party of six gazed straight ahead with what little light that was left of the day at the fort with the condor on top of the reactor incubating its egg. Angeal and Nico both set down their passengers while Genesis maintained his hold on Elain as she fell more deeply into sleep.

"I got a bad feeling that the people there will freak out, try to kill us, then only listen to us,"

Angeal and Christina snickered while Genesis deadpanned at Nico who stared right back, "What? It's true, though," Gillian, who had been quiet up until now, smiled and said, "If you're worried about the people there being hostile, I could go up front and convince them to let us rest there for a while, and get whatever supplies they can give us."

"Sound plan," The two SOLDIER Firsts nodded and the group set off. By the time they arrived at the foot of the fort, night has fallen completely over the Planet, a shower of stars scattered over the sky.

There was no way up the fort and the three SOLDIERs were already exhausted from half a day of flying and did not want to use their wings anymore for the night. Therefore, Gillian called up to the people most likely keeping watch on the fort, saying that they were travelers in need of rest and supplies, to which they replied a negative, saying that they have seen the party of six flying in from the distance and that they recognized Nico's uniform as that of SOLDIER.

Gillian paused and turned around helplessly, "Well, I tried," she said softly, noticing how Genesis clenched his jaw before spinning on his heels, jerking his head roughly, meaning for the party to leave and head on to their next destination when a voice called out, "Wait!"

Genesis whirled around, "What?!"

Angeal quickly placed a calming hand on his childhood friend's shoulder, "Calm down, Gen, let's hear what they have to say." Genesis's mako eyes were smoldering with reined in anger and frustration as he gazed upwards at the person who spoke to him.

"Are you Shin-Ra deserters?"

The Red Commander rolled his eyes, "Yes, we are. Finally noticed, haven't you?"

The man stayed quiet for a while before speaking, "You are allowed to come up here and rest for the night and we will supply you with anything we can get for you, but no more," With that, the man hauled a heavy rope over the fort and let the party climb up towards what would be a good day's rest.

_On the fort..._

After settling down in one of the many bunks the people of Fort Condor have, the three SOLDIERs instantly lay down for some well deserved rest, but they did not sleep, yet. Angeal was watching Elain while his mother told the people the list of what supplies they lacked. Nico was talking to Christina while her brother was silently thinking of their future hardships and their next course of action. It seems that...being the leader is not always this easy. Genesis sighed, turning over on his bunk, still deep in thought: maybe all those fights, arguments and jealously towards Sephiroth had really been meaningless?

"Y'know, Christi, why don't you go talk to your brother? I don't wanna look like as if I'm hogging all the attention from you," Nico half jested while nudging the girl in the direction of her brother. Christina glanced at her brother whose back was facing her, and sensed an aura of depression around the elder Rhapsodos. Giving the Copy a nod, the younger sibling sidled over to her brother, "Gen?"

The Red Commander turned with a tired smile, "Sister,"

"What's troubling you?"

Genesis did not say anything for a moment before sighing, "I just realized...that being the leader isn't as easy as I thought. Back in Shin-Ra, I didn't care for the welfare of the other SOLDIERs and cadets, even during the Wutai War. I was too busy focusing on Sephiroth, my...I guess you could say he's my friend—"

"The General, right?"

"Yeah, well..." The elder Rhapsodos sighed heavily, "Maybe I was wrong this whole time round... _My soul, corrupted by vengeance. Hath endured torment, to find the end of the journey."_

Christina smiled gently, "Your soul isn't corrupted by anything, Gen, just...well," here she laughed, "I don't see anyone being normal after being screwed over by Shin-Ra, especially the Science Department. You said Sephiroth was raised by Shin-Ra, right?"

Genesis cracked a smile and nodded, "Yeah..." he looked thoughtful before sitting up, "Get the others, we need to plan for tomorrow,"

The younger Rhapsodos hugged her brother before going off to do as she was told.

* * *

Zack was sleeping soundly in his room, when a soft voice roused him from his peaceful slumber.

"...k, ...ack, Zack! Wake up, Tseng's looking for you,"

Zack jerked back into awareness, "H—huh? Oh, Cissnei, it's just you..." The SOLDIER Second rubbed his eyes and got off his bed, mindful of the Turk standing in his room. Cissnei giggled a little, "You drool in your sleep,"

The Puppy yelped and wiped his mouth, where there was dried saliva tracks crusted on the corners. Embarrassed, Zack dashed off to his bathroom and cleaned himself up, aware of Cissnei laughing at him.

"Geez, alright, what does Tseng want?"

Zack felt a little nervous, Kunsel had given him an earful for 'loaning' his laptop to the Turks and an ultimatum, and after that experience, Zack was not very eager to help out the Turk Director anymore. "Don't worry, he just wants to talk, and I'm just the messenger," Cissnei smiled and said, "Well, catch you later," before leaving.

Zack groaned, "Just wants to talk, huh? Yeah, right," he sighed and got up, equipping himself and left for the Department of Administrative Research.

Upon arrival to Tseng's office, Zack shut the door with a disgruntled expression on his face.

"Something wrong?"

Zack glared at the Wutaian man, "I need the laptop back, Kunsel's going to kill me if I don't get it back," Tseng laughed, "Don't worry, you'll get it back after our business."

Zack deadpanned, "That sounded so wrong, man,"

Tseng smirked and said, "We're going to the interrogation rooms, don't worry, it's about our...little issue,"

Zack sighed, "No torturing, I hope? And who's the unlucky guy?"

Tseng shook his head, "One of the personnel who works in the medical team, Dr Martinez. No, it's just simple questioning."

"Hmm, I see, alright, let's do it!"

_Interrogation Room..._

"When was the last time you saw them?"

Dr Martinez was sweating bullets despite not being strapped down to the chair, 'Oh crap, I'm done for, I should've covered my tracks better,' "Well, before the bombing of Banora, obviously."

"Could you be a little more specific?"

"Um, well, I suppose...before Fort Tamblin's capture?"

Tseng looked thoughtful, "Hmm... that's much better, what were your observations regarding the girls?"

"According to Commander Hewley, the girls were stored in mako tanks for some time. They had a mild case of mako poisoning, but will survive the ordeal if not a little weak at the beginning when they wake. If they were trained, their strength would be on par with First Class SOLDIERs and yes, the experiments conducted on them are SOLDIER related. Also, they have the same problem from being...'products' of Project G: degradation, and there is no cure, though Commander Rhapsodos is certain that he will find one."

Zack looked upset, "So, you're saying that they're gonna die?" The doctor looked at the distraught SOLIDER and felt a little guilty, "Yes, painfully, in fact."

Tseng looked troubled, "I see,"

"That's all there is to it, really. I haven't seen them after that,"

Tseng looked at Dr Martinez, "Rest assured your secret will be safe, we too, wish to get to the bottom of this, you may go."

Getting up from his seat, Dr Martinez left quickly.

Returning to Tseng's office, Zack told the Turk of his thoughts on why Genesis and Angeal defected and the Turk could only agree with him. The usually energetic Puppy slumped against the wall he was closest to, "I can't believe this...Angeal...and the rest...are going to die...They're all going to die..." Zack growled in frustration and grabbed at his head, "Damn it! There's got to be some way to save them!"

Tseng gave the SOLDIER Second a slightly sympathetic look and sighed quietly to himself before reaching for Kunsel's laptop placed in his desk drawer and handed it to Zack, "Here, as promised, you can take this back to Kunsel. Tell him that he has my complete secrecy regarding his...information." Zack just hung his head and accepted the laptop, "Yeah, sure," he mumbled, "See you around, Tseng,"

The Turk Director just stared sadly at the door that closed behind the distressed SOLDIER.

* * *

"By daybreak, we need to move and start off to Junon," Genesis traced a line from Fort Condor to the party's next destination on the map, "We need to move as quickly as possible, I don't know how fast the degradation process will go, but I wish to remain sane and complete my mission before I start losing my touch." Genesis pulled back and looked around at the seated party.

"Don't worry brother, we'll make it the the Forgotten City," Christina placed a reassuring hand on Genesis's shoulder with a warm smile and the Red Commander nodded in grateful thanks for his sister's encouraging words.

"Uh, just a little...I've been to Junon for missions before and the Grasslands are filled with several monsters, mostly Nerosuferoths and a couple to a few Zemzeletts. Man, those things are _hard_ to kill." Nico grumbled at the end of his sentence.

Genesis shrugged, "Nothing a bit of Matra Magic can't fix, the Nerosuferoths aren't really that much of a threat, and they drop lots of Hi-Potions. As for the Zemzeletts..."

"Those bird-like monsters are easily knocked out of the air by Wind magic, and they drop Hi-Potions too, I've taken Zack there during VR training." Angeal supplied helpfully to which Genesis nodded, and Nico looking dumbfounded despite no one being able to see his face behind the helmet.

"How the heck are things always so easy for First Class?!"

The party broke out into hearty chuckles at the Copy's frustrated outburst and Genesis just folded up the map and packed it up, "Why don't you tell me instead, SOLDIER? Because I don't know," he smirked at Nico as he readied himself for slumber. Everyone began to return to their own bunks when Angeal spoke up, "Maybe we can also catch some chocobos and hitch a ride that way, it could speed things up,"

"Great idea, Angeal! I've always wanted to ride a chocobo ever since Gen told me about them!" Christina snuggled under the sheets happily upon hearing that while Genesis smiled wryly as he glanced at the youngest Hewley, "Don't forget to tell Elain about everything we just discussed too, 'Geal,"

"Yeah, see you guys in the morning."

With that, the party fell into a restful, much needed sleep. Well, not so much for Christina though.

_Dream sequence..._

_"Hello? Is anyone out here?"_

_Christina nervously made her way through the never ending whiteness as a fierce blizzard raged around her, obscuring her surroundings and her vision. The younger Rhapsodos struggled through the howling wind when she notice something dark up ahead._

_Squinting, she realized that it was some sort of secret entrance to somewhere. She did not think twice and struggled her way into the entrance, desperate to get out of the blizzard._

_Once inside, Christina quickly brushed off the snow and combed her windswept hair back into place before getting a good look at the interior of whatever place she entered. It was dark, and there was only minimal lighting._

_The young auburn haired girl looked around and staggered forward slowly, cautiously. She navigated through the dark halls which were beginning to give her a sense of deja vu, for the walls looked like they were made of the same material the mako reactors were built with. She then heard the noise of sloshing liquid, which set Christina on guard, she looked around her nervously and worriedly, scared that something was going to jump out at her from the darkness._

_"Is someone in here?"_

_Christina breathed heavily as uneasiness and fear began creeping up her spine. There was no response, only more sloshing sounds from the dark, which only made it worse._

_After going through the seemingly endless maze-like hallways, Christina ended up in front of a shiny sliver door, which, after all the darkness, stung her eyes a little. The sloshing noises got louder, and Christina knew that they came from behind this door. She slowly reached for the shining handle when she heard it:_

"Help me...please..."

 _The younger Rhapsodos recoiled immediately, staring at the door in horror, 'Wha...what was that?!' She backed away slowly, fear gradually wrapping around her heart as she turned and ran back the way she came. As she made her escape, she heard the sad, pitiful, haunting voice all around her,_ "Please...please help me..." "Don't go... don't leave me..." "Come back...I need you..." "Help...help me!" "Get me out of here!"

_The voice began to sound more and more panicked as Christina stumbled blindly around trying to find the exit. And from panicked, the voice became menacing and shrill, which scared the hell out of the orphan girl as she seemingly ran in circles._

_"Whoever you are, stay away! Stay away from me! Leave me alone!"_

_Christina turned a corner and tripped, falling against the wall and she sat there, ears ringing with the voice calling out to her and her nerves completely wracked. She hugged her knees to her chest and shivered from—was that cold wind breezing through the dead hallway? The young girl released a choked sob and chanted desperately to herself, "Go away, go away, go away..."_

_She wiped her eyes and tried to calm down the way Genesis had taught her to, breathing in deeply and stilling her roiling emotions. 'Deep breaths, c'mon, you can do this,' Christina repeated the process a few times before achieving the calm that she wanted. Exhaling in relief, she tipped her head back and allowed it to rest against the wall she was leaning on._

_Feeling much more better, Christina opened her eyes, lowered her head...and felt her breath catch in her throat:_

_A pale white hand was reaching out for her from the never ending darkness,_ _and the voice she had been hearing was closer than ever,_ "Please don't run away...don't leave me here...take me with you...Help me...HELP ME!"

_The auburn haired girl screamed, "NO!"_

_Dream sequence end._

In the world of realities, the sun had yet to rise, but was very close to daybreak, and Genesis was awakened by the moaning and crying sounds coming from his sister. Years of SOLDIER training jerking him into wakefulness, the Red Commander threw off his sheets and spun around to see his sister tossing and turning in her bunk.

Gasping and clawing at the sheets, Christina was groaning "No, no, no," over and over again. She turned her head and Genesis saw her brows crease, "Leave...me...alone!" She then jolted in her bunk and gasped, "No! Go away! Go away..."

Genesis grimaced and quickly went over to his sister, "Christi, Chris! Wake up, it's just a nightmare," When Christina did not respond, Genesis began to shake her shoulder, "Christina, wake up! It's just a bad dream!"

"Ahh!"

The younger Rhapsodos shot upright from her bunk, gasping and panting heavily. She turned and saw her brother's concerned mako eyes staring at her and she instantly hugged him, whimpers and quiet sobs beginning to break through.

"Shh, it's okay...it's okay, just a bad dream..."

Genesis soothed his distraught sister gently until she finally calmed down and was just leaning against him tiredly. "Want to talk about it?" The Red Commander asked carefully and gently at the same time.

Christina sniffed, but said nothing, and simply buried her face into her brother's chest. "I can't help you if you don't tell me anything..." Genesis murmured as he stroked his sister's hair soothingly while feeling like a hypocrite for he had never approached anyone for such help before.

With a hoarse voice from sleep, Christina quietly recounted everything from her nightmare and Genesis listened patiently, squeezing his sister's shoulder now and then to reassure her at the right moments.

"...The hand tried to grab me, and I screamed. After that, you woke me up."

"That's it?"

Christina nodded and looked around, asking, "What time is it? Did I wake anyone else up?"

"Nearly dawn, it's fine, I'm the only one awake."

The younger Rhapsodoes sighed softly before mumbling, "Can you read Loveless to me?"

Genesis smiled and reached into his coat pocket, drew out his precious book, flipped it open, and began to murmur the lines to his sister.

_"When the war of the beasts brings about the world's end,  
The Goddess descends from the sky,  
Wings of light and dark spread afar,  
She guides us to bliss, her gift everlasting..."_

Sighing, Christina slowly leaned deeper into her brother, and her eyelids began to slide downwards, as her brother's calming voice washed over her, sending her into a deep stupor.

Far away in Midgar, Sephiroth was just rising from his bed and began to prepare for a mission in Junon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Admittedly struggled with Genesis's characterization here. I hope it's not too awkward.


	6. Junon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Old friends meet.

* * *

The Silver General strode down the hallways of Floor 49 after receiving a file from Lazard, and was ready to leave for Junon. He rounded a corner, and passed by the SOLDIER lounge, where his sharp eyes caught sight of a depressed Puppy, who was absentmindedly drinking a cup of coffee, seemingly having a lot on his mind.

'That's odd, Zack doesn't usually think that much and he is mostly...energetic. Perhaps Angeal's defection must have affected him a lot more than I thought...'

"Zack?"

Said SOLDIER jumped so bad that he nearly lost his grip on the cup and spilled coffee down the floor, "Huh? Woah! S-sir! I didn't see you there! What's up Seph? Hehe,"

Sephiroth studied the flustered SOLDIER's face, and could tell that the smile was a facade, for there was underlying anxiety under that mask of cheer.

"Are you feeling alright? You looked lost in thought,"

"Y-yeah, I'm good! Just a little bored, is all."

And Zack began to ramble about his 'boring' life, no missions, no assignments and whatnot. But Sephiroth could tell that there was something wrong with his best friend's apprentice and could only resolve to talk to him later as he was beginning to be running late for his mission.

"Zack, you're rambling, I'll talk to you later when I get to Junon. You can always come to me if there is something bothering you, but please, not for pranks or trivial matters."

The Silver General smiled slightly, laying a calm hand on Zack's shoulder before leaving, heading off to the helipad.

Zack stared blankly at his superior and sighed miserably, "If only you knew why, Seph..." he slumped back into the couch, putting his coffee down. "I wanna do something to help...I wanna do something so badly, but I'm stuck here in Midgar and..." Zack felt like crying and he had not cried for a long time, so he just settled for burying his face in his hands, feeling a huge lump stuck in his throat and his chest.

A comforting arm was wrapped around the Puppy, and Zack did not need to look up to tell that it was his best buddy, Kunsel.

"Hey, man, cheer up, there's still a chance,"

"What chance? Here I am, stuck in the damn city with no missions when I could be out there, trying to help them!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down, dude. Like I said, there's still a chance for them, so don't worry. You said that they were going to look for a cure, right? And if they find it, it'll be alright."

Zack sighed in exasperation, "A cure that doesn't exist, Kuns! There is no known cure for this! And the worst part? I'm not even sure if I should tell Sephiroth about it. But if I don't tell him...Argh, I just don't know anymore!"

Kunsel just sighed softly and patted his friend's back. Somehow, all of this had just gotten more worse and complicated. Judging by Sephiroth's past, he will not take this particular news well and could easily loose his mind. So it is no wonder why Zack was struggling over whether or not to tell him the news.

'I just hope this will end soon...I don't know what'll happen to Zack if this goes on, he's in enough pain already...'

* * *

Sephiroth sat silently in the chopper that was buzzing its way to Junon, thinking about what happened earlier. Something was clearly bothering Zack Fair but Sephiroth could not think what it was unless it really was about Angeal's defection.

Not to mention the fact that he had coldly put Angeal's defection as an act of treason against Shin-Ra so quickly in front of Zack. For that, Sephiroth felt a little guilty, but he was sure that that was not the case.

The Silver General sighed, promising to himself to speak with Zack whenever possible as the chopper neared the city of Junon.

_In Shin-Ra's secondary headquarters..._

Sephiroth stepped down lightly from the chopper and nodded to the SOLDIER faction that were there to welcome him. Man, he hated the fame, it was so annoying to have everyone bow down to you just because you killed so many innocents.

Sephiroth held in a sigh and moved straight off to the Vice President's office where he was supposed to report.

"Vice President, sir, reporting for duty."

Rufus Shinra, heir of the Shin-Ra Company, turned around in his chair with a smile on his face, "Sephiroth, good to see you here."

Sephiroth simply returned a stoic nod, and waited for his orders.

Rufus gathered up some papers and shuffled through them, "You're to patrol the city, supervise the training of the military faction here, and...that's pretty much about it, good day."

Sephiroth twitched, he hated supervising duty, it was so hard to train the SOLDIERs when they act robotic around him, and let's not even start talking about the infantrymen: they practically quiver in the combat boots their wearing. And to top it all off: patrol duty, today was such an interesting day.

Well, better than having to hunt his friends down, though.

"Good day to you, sir,"

He turned on his heel and walked right out of the Vice President's office and headed off to that one place to have a bit of quiet.

The Mako Cannon of Junon.

* * *

The party of six were taking a break from their long walk from Fort Condor. Once again, the two pairs of siblings were training while Gillian prepared some food. Nico himself was off with Genesis's Chocobo Lure, trying to find six chocobos for all of them to get to Junon.

They had been walking all morning and were now resting near the coast, where they had easy access to water.

After the training session, the two girls were sweating hard from training and the hot afternoon sun. Gillian handed them some stew while she waited for the rest of the other food to cook, she also laid out some Banora Whites for everyone to enjoy.

Eyeing the fruit, Christina spoke up, "Hey, Mrs Hewley, do you think those apples will grow elsewhere other than Banoran soil?"

"Well, I'm not sure, we could try, after all, they're quite tasty."

Angeal chuckled, "Oh, mother, all you ever do is think about the taste," Elain giggled, "Jeez, brother, don't tease mom like that,"

The Hewleys shared a hearty laugh while Christina just smiled alongside Genesis as they watched the family drama. "I suppose we just need to find some earth that's rich in mako, for this is the reason why they grew so well in Banora then," The Red Commander mused as he picked up one apple and examined it.

Christina just laughed and switched topics, "Hey, brother, do you think we'll find a gold chocobo one day?"

Genesis just smiled, "Well, we'll have to see our luck. Those are extremely rare and you can't find one around at all, unless you want to get into chocobo breeding."

Christina grinned, "We could open our own farm, with dumbapple trees around and a huge stable, filled with all kinds of chocobos."

"Oh, really? Cool! I wanna join in!" Elain exclaimed when she heard that, Angeal laughed, "Sounds like a nice plan!"

All five of them laughed out loud and Genesis had to smile, he had not felt like this in a very long time. This is what it meant to have a real family around you, where they will talk, laugh, and joke around with you. It made his heart feel lighter than before, 'I could get used to this,' The Red Commander smiled fondly at his little family around him, especially his newfound sister.

"Looks like there's a verse coming on," Elain commented right before Genesis began to recite Act II of Loveless, causing another outbreak of cheerful laughter from the group.

"Hey guys, look what I found!"

Everyone turned to see Nico, a little scratched up, leading six yellow chocobos behind him.

"Aww, they're so adorable!"

Christina got to her feet and ran towards one chocobo and began to stroke its feathers and pat it. The startled yellow bird released a loud "Wark!" and tried to get away, but later found that the soothing pats were much better and calmed down.

"Seriously, Christi, don't scare 'em off, I spent quite some time trying to catch all six of them, y'know. Damn claws are pretty sharp. Ow, hey!"

Nico had been pecked by another chocobo, who sent him a baleful glare. Rubbing his shoulder, Nico sniffed, "She doesn't like me,"

"Ohhh, but she likes me,"

Elain was petting the chocobo who pecked the Copy in delight, "She's sweet!"

The remaining three smiled sadly at their sisters/daughter, to have never seen of a chocobo, much less heard of one...

"Alrighty, your name's going to be Hyacinth. Hmm, don't know why, but it fits for me." Christina was patting the beak of the chocobo now.

"Mine's gonna be Indira, she's really cute, and pretty feisty," Elain chuckled at the look on Nico's face.

Nico shrugged, "Oh, well, that one's mine, he's really nice, he just doesn't trust me enough to let me ride him yet." he pointed to a chocobo in the far back, "Name's Edgar, by the way, and he's the only male in the group,"

Genesis and Angeal raised an eyebrow, "The only male?"

"Yeah, for some reason, all the females came rushing up to attack me the instant I activated the Chocobo Lure. Must be the hatching season or something."

The SOLDIER Firsts chuckled, "Well, I guess this one's mine," Angeal stepped over and ruffled the feathers of another chocobo, "Her name's going to be Eve," The chocobo warked loudly and pushed her head against Angeal, causing him to smile and pet her beak.

"Hmm, your name shall be Sienna,"

Everyone looked at Genesis as he stroked the beak of one of the last two chocobos gently. Christina stepped over, "Sienna, huh? It's beautiful," the younger Rhapsodos gazed into the bright blue eyes of her brother's steed. She looked up and snickered, "You just had to treat a female chocobo like a lady,"

Genesis looked slightly offended as the rest of the party burst out laughing hard, even the chocobos warked away. But Angeal managed to control his mirth a little to explain to the rest, "Genesis was raised by wealthy people, what do you think happens to children raised by wealthy people?"

"They get daily earfuls of morals and etiquette and how to conduct one's self," Elain chuckled.

"Which is a complete nightmare, mind you," Genesis muttered in annoyance.

The laughter gradually died down but everyone was still either snickering or giggling. The Red Commander rolled his eyes, grumbled a "Whatever," before clapping Angeal on the shoulder, saying, "Thanks for explaining,"

The SOLDIER of honor chuckled, "I try,"

Gillian named the last chocobo Vista and began to serve lunch, to which everyone quickly ate to replenish their strength. After that, everyone mounted their chocobos and continued their journey to Junon.

* * *

Sephiroth stood silently on the barrel of the Mako Cannon, silently contemplating about the good old days when everything was just fine despite the snippy attitude Genesis always threw at him.

'How did it all go wrong so fast?'

The Silver General shook his head lightly before remembering his promise to Zack and pulled out his PHS, dialing the Puppy's number.

_"Zack here, what's up, Seph?"_

"Is there anything you would like to tell me regarding earlier? I understand that Angeal's...defection has upset you, but that did not seem to be all."

_"..."_

"Zack?"

_"It's complicated...sir."_

Sephiroth sighed lightly to himself, "Very well, if that's the case, I understand. But do not hesitate to call if there is an issue."

_"Yes, sir,"_

With that, Sephiroth hung up and pocketed his PHS, refocusing on the landscape before him as his mind began to think back on the fight he had with Genesis in the VR training rooms. Closing his eyes in regret, Sephiroth turned and headed inside, prepared to complete his duties.

_Half an hour later..._

Sephiroth completed the thirtieth loop of his patrol around the city, feeling incredibly bored while keeping an eye out for monsters by the coast. Whenever he began to feel irritated by the mission, he kept reminding himself that this was better than having to hunt down his friends. Deciding to have a change of scenery by the waters, Sephiroth left the original path of his patrol and went closer to the beach, the sea breeze brushing through his hair gently.

Whatever the Silver General had on his mind, he was definitely not going to be prepared for the oncoming encounter with a couple of old friends.

* * *

With chocobos to aid them in travelling, the party of six arrived in Junon sooner than they thought. Despite the monsters getting in their way, it was no problem for them as the majority of them could fight.

"Oh, well," Genesis sighed, "Back in this hellhole, huh?"

Angeal rolled his eyes, stating, "You were not actually here, Gen." knowing that he was referring to the fight with Sephiroth.

Genesis sniffed and said nothing as he slid off Sienna's back elegantly.

Or at least he tried to.

The Red Commander's knees buckled beneath him as pain shot through his shoulder without warning. Clutching his bad shoulder, Genesis gritted his teeth, trying to hold in his pain as Christina appeared at his side, unable to do much except ask if he was okay.

"I'm...fine,"

Genesis winced as he slowly got to his feet, to be greeted by five pairs of worried eyes, Christina's grip on his arm tight with anxiety. "Really, I'm fine, it's passed now."

"Are you sure, Gen?" Angeal asked, concern lacing his voice while the others slid off their chocobos.

"Yeah," Genesis looked up to the late afternoon sky, "Let's go." he grabbed the reins of Sienna and was about to lead when Nico stopped him.

"Sir, Sephiroth is in the city."

The whole group froze with shock for a moment before turning to face Nico, who was checking his PHS, which had pinged during Genesis's brief moment of pain.

Genesis grew slightly annoyed, "When the heck was he sent here? And what for?"

Nico checked Sephiroth's mission details and said, "This morning, and he's just here to patrol the city and supervise military training. Ha! I pity those guys in there, having the General watch you while you train is sure to be stressful." Nico snickered with glee while the two SOLDIER Firsts rolled their eyes at the gleeful Second.

"So, will he be supervising now or what?" Elain asked, turning towards her brother for answers only for Genesis to snort, "Please, if I know Sephiroth, he _hates_ any mission that doesn't have any action in it. So most likely he'll be patrolling as there is a possibility of monsters attacking the city from the coast." Genesis paused, then frowned, "But why did he accept this mission then? For his standards, they are definitely boring."

"Good question, sir," Nico was scrolling down the mission log, "All the missions that the General have taken lately are pretty much non-action types."

Angeal nodded in understanding, "He probably doesn't want to take any mission that could possibly result in him hunting us down."

The Red Commander smirked, "So the Great General Sephiroth _does_ care." before gesturing for the party to follow him into the city.

* * *

"Head to the other end of the city and wait for us there with the others, can you do that, Sienna?" Genesis gazed into the eyes of his chocobo, who warked softly before wheeling around and leading the other chocobos with her to their next location.

Genesis straightened up, now dressed in only his SOLDIER sleeveless turtleneck, with a simple jacket hoodie over it, and turned to address the now disguised group.

"Alright, once we're in the city, discretion is our key to pulling this off. Our mission: grab supplies, get out. Plain and simple."

Christina and Elain both giggled at Genesis's commanding attitude before they set foot into the city, "Y'know, Christi, your brother _really_ likes being the most dramatic guy on earth."

"I know, but that's just the way he is."

From up front, Genesis just rolled his eyes at the girls' comments as he pulled up his hood alongside Angeal, Nico and Gillian. The girls did not need hoodies, as it was unlikely that anyone would recognize them.

_A few minutes later, with Sephiroth..._

The General of the Shin-Ra Army had resumed his patrolling duties and was just passing by the market place when he saw a girl with auburn hair similar to Genesis purchasing something at one of the booths lining the streets.

Frowning, the Silver General followed the girl at a distance after she was done with her purchases. He heard her mutter under her breath, "Hmm, that should do it. Time to leave the city." This only piqued Sephiroth's curiosity as he continued to follow her.

They arrived at the other edge of the city and the girl headed towards six chocobos that seemed to be waiting for her.

Sephiroth intended to walk up to the girl when he felt a blade rest on his shoulder, near his neck.

Turning slightly, Sephiroth saw a hooded man with Genesis's Rapier in his hands. "Who are you and why do you have this sword?"

The hooded man lowered his head slightly, and replied in a deep voice, "It doesn't matter how I have it. Now if you would be so kind to get out of the way so that my companions and I could leave."

Sephiroth realized that there were three more hooded figures behind the man, alongside a black haired girl who looked nervous. There seemed to be something familiar about her and the rest of the party just looked somewhat suspicious.

Sephiroth's eyes narrowed slightly, "What business do you have here in Junon?"

One of the other hooded figures spoke up, "Supplies, we're simply travelers on the road and just happened to pass by this city. Now that we're done, we're just about to leave."

Sephiroth noticed something bulky at the back of that particular figure and felt a spark of recognition, but he could not place it, and let them pass.

Or at least that is what he wanted them to think.

Reaching out all of a sudden, Sephiroth pulled off the hood that was covering the first man, and was greeted by auburn locks, shocking him.

"Genesis?"

"Maybe you shouldn't have drawn your sword,"

Sephiroth turned sharply towards the second hooded speaker, who turned out to be Angeal as he pulled down his hood.

Genesis just smirked, "Well, lucky me." he slashed at Sephiroth, who leaped back to avoid the attack while drawing Masamune at the same time.

Leveling his blade at Sephiroth, Genesis tilted his head to one side, "Well, will you let us go? Or bring us in? The choice is yours, Sephiroth."

Sephiroth stayed in a loose battle stance while he observed the now uncovered faces: Genesis, Angeal, a Genesis Copy, Angeal's mother, the black haired girl along with the auburn haired girl who had frozen up near the chocobos, and wondered if he should let them go, or bring them in.


	7. Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sephiroth gets a hint...albeit sorta obscure because it's Genesis lol

Sephiroth gazed at his AWOL friends and their companions, the gears in his head turning quickly when he decided to make a split-second decision and get some answers.

"Why?"

Genesis looked infuriatingly amused, "Why I defected?" he stepped forward so that the others were behind him. "A lot of reasons, Sephiroth, reasons that I don't feel inclined to share with you. After all, _infinite in mystery is the Gift of the Goddess, we seek it thus, and take to the sky. Ripples form on the water's surface, the wandering soul knows no rest_."

Sephiroth fought back a sigh as Genesis smirked, "There is no point in telling you anything. You'd never understand; never have, never will. So why change now?"

Sephiroth remained silent, he was rather used to Genesis making all sorts of assumptions about him and he knew that the Red Commander would not stop until he was done, so he waited. But he was surprised at what his friend said next.

"Now, what I want most, is the Gift of the Goddess, and staying in Shin-Ra would not help me attain it at all."

"If that was truly the case, what does Angeal have to do with this? And the attacks on the company?"

Genesis only laughed, "You would not understand if I told you."

Sephiroth's eyes tightened, "Then _make_ me understand."

"Gen, let's go already," From where she stood with the chocobos, Christina was anxious: the sooner they left, the better.

Genesis glanced at his sister and smiled, "In a moment, my friend," he turned to face Sephiroth once again, "Once you find out the truth behind the experiments that created us, Sephiroth, perhaps you would understand." With that, Genesis turned to leave, "I'd suggest asking Hollander or even Hojo about it. But I doubt that you would get the truth from the likes of them."

_Up in Shin-Ra Headquarters, Surveillance Control Room..._

Legend whistled with boredom as he swayed from side to side on his roller chair. He was supposed to be keeping an eye on the surveillance cameras before him but he was just too lazy to care. After all, the Great General Sephiroth was here, what could happen?

The Turk sighed, and allowed his eyes to slide across the monitors when he saw a commotion happening at the Northern gates.

He frowned, leaning forward to get a clearer look before his eyes widened slightly behind his shades.

"Shotgun, get Katana and inform the VP that we've got intruders in the city."

The sandy blonde Turk looked up, "Intruders?" she rose to her feet and reached for her handgun, eyes narrowed, "SOLDIER First Class Genesis?"

Legend kept his eyes fixed on screen, "Yes, now go."

"Got it,"

With Katana in tow, Shotgun moved with haste to Rufus's office.

Legend stood and searched for the other remaining Turks, "Gun, Rod, get down to the Northern gates and detain the intruders. Two Guns, be on standby, just in case the Vice-Prez needs something."

Gun made a face at having to be paired with Rod, who snapped a lazy salute, saying, "Ya got it, bro!" before heading down to their destination.

_Rufus Shinra's Office..._

The heir to Shin-Ra Company looked calmly at his computer, which had been linked to the surveillance channels, observing the confrontation between the SOLDIERs as Shotgun and Katana stood to attention behind him, awaiting his orders.

'A Copy, Commander Hewley's mother, and...?'

"Does any of you two know those girls? Or perhaps, even seen them before?"

The Turks moved closer to the screen to look, and Shotgun replied, "No sir, not at all." while Katana simply shook his head.

Rufus smiled, "Do not engage unless I say otherwise."

Taken aback by the strange order yet understanding Rufus's desire to overthrow his father by messing up company business, the Turks complied, leaving to inform Legend of the Vice-President's orders.

* * *

Sephiroth was beginning to feel slightly confused and suspicious: there was something that Genesis was not telling him and yet everything he said seemed to make sense.

Before he could say another word; however, two Turks showed up.

Genesis's eyes narrowed dangerously, alarm bells ringing in his head. There was no way in hell that he was going to let the Turks take them in, and possibly hurt his and Angeal's sister in the process. With that thought in mind, the materia master growled at Nico to get both Elain and her mother out of the city as he attacked the Turks, completely ignoring Sephiroth, who still did not raise Masamune against him.

Seeing a fight breaking out, Christina quickly swung herself onto Hyacinth's back and prepared to flee. She watched as her brother tackled the Turks while Angeal covered Nico's escape with his family. The Silver General did not fight at all, simply standing there with his sword drawn and observing the battle that took place.

Genesis lashed out viciously at the Turks, not giving them the chance to retaliate while pulling out a Summon materia from his pocket: Ifrit, the same one that he had used on Zack back in Wutai.

Having summoned the God of Hell Fire, Genesis made his getaway, all the while noticing that Sephiroth had not moved from his spot. Not bothering to think more about it, Genesis swung himself onto Sienna and fled with the others.

_Moments later..._

The chocobos' beaks were hanging open from how hard and fast they have been running. Genesis turned back to make sure that they were far enough from Junon, before signalling everyone to get off their steeds. Once they were free of their burden, the chocobos immediately sank onto the grassy ground, resting their weary legs.

"That was really close," Elain was panting slightly from the hasty ride, "How in the world did Sephiroth even...?"

"He must've followed Christina when she was buying supplies," Angeal said thoughtfully, "But he couldn't have—of course!"

Everyone blinked at Angeal's sudden exclamation, "It's the hair, Gen, your sister's hair tipped him off."

The Red Commander frowned, "There are other people with red hair too..."

Angeal shook his head, "C'mon, Gen, we both know how anti-social Sephiroth is. The only red head he knows is you, and all of a sudden, your sister shows up. That's bound to get his attention. Besides, red hair isn't exactly the most common hair colour in the world."

Genesis grimaced, "I suppose I was wrong on the whole people-not-recognizing-our-sisters part." He then turned to Nico, "How far from our location to Midgar?"

The SOLDIER pulled out the map from his pack, "Several days away, sir. There's a river cutting between us and the wastelands up ahead. The chocobos can drink there, though the water might be a little salty since we're so close to the sea."

Genesis nodded, "Good, and now would be a very good time to launch another attack." he turned towards the general direction of the Mako City, eyes narrowing slightly.

"Another attack? I thought the rest were still at Modeoheim," Nico was surprised, Genesis looked amused, "And let them suffer from boredom? I'd think not, they'd tear the town apart with their ridiculous squabbling." Hearing this, Nico blushed though no one could see his face. It was true as most SOLDIER Thirds and Seconds were quite unruly when they had nothing to do.

Genesis smirked slightly, "I told them to move down south towards Midgar before we left Condor. Their last report said that they were stationed somewhere south of Bone Village, meaning that they are getting close." He shot Angeal a meaningful look, but it was Christina who caught up to Genesis's intentions.

"So, by telling the others to attack Midgar, it would distract Shin-Ra from thoroughly investigating what happened earlier in Junon."

"Exactly, you read me so well, dear sister."

Gillian spoke up at that moment, "Shall we move on to the river then?"

Angeal nodded, and suggested that everyone not ride the chocobos to give them more recovery time. And so, the party moved onward after giving their steeds some greens to snack on.

* * *

Having defeated Ifrit with Sephiroth's eventual assistance, Gun and Rod reported to Legend via PHS, who relayed the outcome of the situation back to Rufus, who then ordered Sephiroth to report to his office.

"The Vice-President requests your presence in his office, sir." Gun said to the Silver General who had dematerialized his sword after the Summon had been defeated.

He simply gave the Turk a nod before making his way back to HQ.

_Rufus's office..._

The heir to the company was seated before his desk, his eyes closed in thought.

"Sir, do you have any further orders, sir?"

Ice blue eyes opened to gaze upon the Turks who had returned due to Legend's orders, "No, dismissed."

"Yes sir,"

Both Shotgun and Katana then left the office, leaving Rufus to his various plans of overthrowing his father. But now, his attention was on the scene from before, 'Perhaps I could _use_ Genesis, or perhaps not...that volatile man would be hard to control, unless...'

Just then, his office door received a series of knocks, "General Sephiroth, sir."

"Come in,"

Shin-Ra's military poster boy entered and closed the door behind him, "You wanted to see me,"

"Yes, I'd like to hear the story from your perspective, if you please."

Sephiroth therefore recounted everything that had led up to the confrontation, starting with the strange girl who Sephiroth could now tell resembled Genesis and meant something to him.

Rufus looked amused, "Commander Rhapsodos has a sister? That's very interesting indeed,"

"With all due respect sir, we have no way of telling whether or not that girl was Genesis's sister."

"But you've said it yourself, Commander Rhapsodos grew extremely protective of his...ah, companions, when my Turks showed up. And you also mentioned that the eyes of both girls were mako green, though not as green as yours, of course."

Sephiroth fell silent, there was just no way that Genesis and Angeal had siblings or they would have mentioned the subject to him. What is so secretive about having siblings, right? But there were also the eyes...those eyes could only mean experiments, and Sephiroth could absolutely tell the difference between natural green from mako green.

"Perhaps the Science Department?"

Sephiroth looked up at Rufus, "I came to the same conclusion,"

"Good," Rufus said as he pulled out his PHS, "I'll have Tseng check into the Science Department's databases for anything relevant to those girls."

* * *

_Midgar..._

Zack was staring at his reflection in the mirror at his bathroom, it has been days and he still did not feel like he was First Class at all. He was supposed to be happy, but with Angeal's defection, the entire thing just seemed cursed. Zack wanted to go back to the times when he was still a lost puppy, trailing behind his mentor, proclaiming that he was going to be First Class to be a hero.

Things just seemed so simple then, and with all the recent incidents, Zack began to realize that Shin-Ra was not what he made it out to be.

An upbeat trill rang out from his pocket and Zack pulled out his PHS, he did not bother to check who was calling, "Zack here, who is it?"

_"It's me, Zack, come to my office,"_

With that, Tseng cut off the call, and Zack quickly grabbed his sword while making his way out of his room.

_Tseng's office..._

"There was an incident at Junon today," Tseng said the moment Zack shut the door.

"An incident? In Junon?"

"Yes, Genesis and Angeal have been spotted, along with Angeal's mother, and the girls."

Zack lurched forward and placed his hands on Tseng's desk, "For real?! What were they doing there? Did Sephiroth see them?"

"Yes, he did," Tseng passed over a folder detailing a printed report of the incident over to Zack, "Everything's inside, take a look."

Zack read the report quickly, "What were they doing in Junon? I mean, why risk being seen? They could've just skirted around the city and—"

Tseng smiled, "Think, Zack, travelers who have been on the road since leaving Mideel, and after replenishing supplies at Fort Condor, don't you think they would run out by the time they had gotten to Junon?"

Zack hummed in understanding, "So, why did you call me here?"

"It seems that the Vice-President is...interested in our little case."

"You told him everything?!" Zack yelped, staring at the Turk Director in horror, who shook his head, "Not everything, I simply gave him the information that he wanted, which pertained to the girls."

"The last thing we need is more people getting interested in them, what if the Science Department finds out?" Zack voiced out his worries.

"They won't know anything, I'll make sure of it,"

* * *

_Unknown location..._

Sephira Crescent opened her eyes, and her vision was greeted with mako. Well, nothing new there.

She moved her head slightly, and noticed that her nutrient drip had been recently replaced. The needle piercing her skin gave her an idea: 'If I could use the needle and prise off the bottom of the top...' She raised her head towards the huge metal slab that made up the lid of the tank, and made her decision.

'Better than staying stuck in here and turning into a Makonoid, _that_ would be horrible.'

Sephira grimaced, she knew that she was weak from long periods of inactivity but she would rather die as a human being instead of dying as some mutated monster. So, weak as she was, she knew she had to try.

'First things first, I need to get the mako to drain away.'

Sephira glanced up at the lid once more before pulling a needle out of her left arm. Reaching for the lid, she got to work.

_A long moment later..._

A stream of bubbles escaped Sephira's mouth as she grunted from her efforts. She had managed to pop off the bottom, revealing the complex series of wiring within.

Sephira allowed her arms and neck to rest for a while, before lifting her head once more to examine the wiring above her.

She smiled.

'I'm so glad that I paid attention when those scientists were setting up this thing.'

_Memory sequence..._

_Hojo was irritably ordering his assistants around the recently constructed underground lab. Two of them were carrying one huge box between them, they carefully set down their burden, and sliced through the cellophane taping the box firmly shut._

_"Get the mako tank set up quickly, you imbeciles! I hardly have time to spare for any of your incompetence!"_

_"Yes, Professor,"_

_Six assistants immediately saw to the assembly of the mako tank, not wishing to be on the receiving end of Hojo's wrath._

_The head of the Science Department turned to the lab table that had already been set up earlier with Sephira strapped down on it. He gave her a quick once over to ensure that nothing was out of order before leaving to rearrange some of his lab equipment._

_Sephira angled her head over to where the six assistants were assembling the mako tank, and watched them fit the wiring in its various places in the lid._

_"Make sure the wiring isn't messed up, the Professor won't be happy if any of this stuff gets jammed."_

_"Yeah, he'll throw a hissy fit for sure."_

_"Whatever, he'll find some other reason to breath down our necks anyway."_

_The other scientists grumbled lightly to themselves as they did their job._

_And all the while, Sephira was watching them fix up the mako tank, mumbling the function of each wire quietly to herself._

_Memory sequence end._

Sephira raised her hands out of the mako as she began to hot-wire the mechanism to drain out the mako. It took her some time but she eventually succeeded as the mako level in the tank began to fall.

Sephira let her feet touch the bottom of the tank while she waited for the rest of the mako to recede. When it was fully gone, the door slid open and Sephira lost her balance, sending her crashing to the floor.

"Ow..."

Giving herself a moment to regain her bearings, Sephira closed her eyes and focused on the Jenova cells inside her.

_"Gen, let's go already,"_

_"In a moment, my friend,"_

_After that, it was a series of gunshots ricocheting off a blade. And Sephira heard the thoughts of Christina Rhapsodos: 'Have to get out of here before it's too late! Damn it, of all places for Sephiroth to be, it had to be Junon.'_

"Junon...?"

Sephira blinked a few times as she realized that she had cut off the connection herself. "Junon, huh? That means that it'll still take some time before they'll get anywhere close to the North..."

Sephira groaned, she felt like mush and her legs were definitely not working as of this moment. So, she decided to crawl her way out of the lab and into one the bedrooms belonging to some scientist who once resided here.

'Rest first, and figure things out later. Might as well send Christina another dream message before I sleep...'


	8. City Attack, A New Player in the Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sephiroth gets an info-dump.

Night has fallen over the land and everyone was currently sleeping. The party of six had moved further upriver when the chocobos had their fill of water and set up camp.

Christina had been apprehensive about sleeping but eventually fell into slumber, hoping that there were no creepy dreams this night.

_Dream sequence..._

_Christina was standing in a never-ending field of black. She looked around nervously, thinking "What the heck?" as she tried to figure out where she was._

_"...Hello,"_

_Christina whipped around to see a silver haired girl standing in front of her. Her eyes held a tint of mako in them._

_"Who are you?"_

_The silverette smiled lightly, "Sephira, Sephira Crescent, twin sister to Sephiroth."_

_Christina did a double take, "What?!"_

_Sephira looked sheepish, "That's a bit of a long story. I want to apologize for...y'know, last time?"_

_"Last time? Wait, that dream, it was_ you _!" Christina_ _backtracked a few steps in shock, Sephira raised her hands slightly in apology, "I'm not very good at this, I'm sorry that it ended up becoming a nightmare for you. I was trying to tell you my location while panicking at the same time, so..."_

_"Wait, okay, so you were trying to call for help, but how are you doing this?" Christina gestured at her surroundings and at herself._

_"I got the idea from Hojo's Reunion Theory," Sephira smiled wryly, "The Jenova cells within us will seek to reunite with the main body, which is, Jenova itself. So I used the cells in my body to locate others with the same cells, and I found you. Even if your cells are dead, well, I guess the Reunion Instinct is just really strong."_

_Christina was even more confused than ever, "I don't get it, what do you mean by Jenova? I...what...?"_

_Sephira shook her head, "I'm not so sure myself, most of the time I'm in a trance due to Hojo's experiments so I can't tell you much."_

_Christina thought about it, 'Maybe Genesis knows something about this?' she shook her head, "Alright then, we are en route to Midgar. Judging from the nightmare from before," Sephira gave Christina a sheepish grin, "You're trapped in some kind of underground lab...in the North?"_

_Sephira nodded, "Yeah, but I can't remember the name of the place...it's called...Ice...Ice something, I don't know, can't remember."_

_Christina blinked, "Icicle Inn? Really? Wow, that's pretty far,"_

_"Oh, so that's what it's called? Yeah, I remember now! It was a snowy town_ _—_ _the lab is on the outskirts of that town...up North, I think."_

_Christina nodded, "Okay, I got it, I think I know where you are," she smiled at her fellow experiment, "It was nice meeting you," To her surprise, Sephira was beginning to fade away, "What's going on?"_

_"I'm waking up, I gotta go. I'll contact you again, some time,"_

_"Sure, some time, see you again."_

_Christina's vision faded to black._

_Dream sequence end._

A few hours later, when the sun was rising slowly from the east, the younger Rhapsodos's eyes cracked open and was greeted by the morning blue sky. She yawned, pushing off the blanket given to her by the people of Fort Condor, and stretched, loosening her stiff limbs.

She looked around, everyone was still sleeping, even the chocobos. Christina walked over to the river and washed her face, washing off the last remnants of sleepiness from her being before she returned to her makeshift bed.

* * *

"WHAT?"

The chocobos warked in surprise at Genesis's loud exclamation of shock, "Are you serious? The Great General Sephiroth has a _twin sister_?"

Christina looked awkwardly at everyone else who was staring at her in disbelief and incredulity.

"It's true, I spoke to her last night. In a dream, I mean."

Genesis shook his head, as if doing so would help him clear the confusion in his mind, "What's next, Shin-Ra giving support to those living under the Plate?" he muttered before turning his attention back to the fire that was cooking their breakfast.

"Icicle Inn, huh? That's pretty far," Angeal mused as he sat down beside his mother, "It's kinda scary though, I mean, how many secret labs does Hojo have?" Elain shuddered at the thought of being stuck in a well hidden lab.

"Knowing him, probably plenty," Genesis made a disparaging noise at the back of his throat.

"Sir, I've never really understood the experiments that made SOLDIER possible, could you explain it to us?" Nico spoke up from his spot next to the younger Hewley.

"Yeah, Sephira mentioned Jenova, and said that its cells were inside us, what does that mean?" Christina turned towards her brother curiously.

"Hmm," Genesis crossed his arms as Gillian began to ladle their breakfast into bowls, "There isn't much to tell, I don't know much about it and I don't know how much of the information I'm going to tell you is the truth."

"Years ago, before Shin-Ra became the company that we now know, a scientist working for them found Jenova in a 2000-year-old rock layer. That...thing, was misidentified as an Ancient, a Cetra. In their bid to find the Promised Land, Shin-Ra believed that they needed a Cetra to lead them there. And since the Cetra are pretty much extinct, they decided to create a new genus of Cetra to do so.

"They called it the Jenova Project. Eventually, the project was split into two parts: Project S and Project G. Project S was headed by Hojo, and Project G was headed by Hollander. All of us are results of Project G, which uses dead Jenova cells, causing our degradation while Sephiroth himself is the sole test subject of Project S, which uses live Jenova cells...well, him and his twin, now that Christina's told us. The entire project became the foundation of SOLDIER, that is how it happened."

"'G' stands for Gillian, right?" Elain turned towards her mother, who looked down in shame, "Yes," Gillian lifted her head and continued the story, "When I worked for Shin-Ra, I met Hollander. He convinced me that the experiment was harmless and that nothing serious was going to happen."

"Mother was infused with Jenova cells and when she met father and became pregnant, she had me. You were born a year after me, and Hollander took you when he found out." Angeal told his sister.

"And none of that matters now that you're both here," Gillian smiled as she took both her children's hands in hers. The other three smiled at the Hewleys before digging into their breakfast.

Swallowing a mouthful of stew, the Red Commander grinned, "After this, we travel east along the river, take a break, then start our training. _Ripples form on the water's surface, the wandering soul knows no rest_."

Both Christina and Elain groaned at Genesis's dramatics, "Cut it out!" the younger Rhapsodos grumbled in exasperation while Angeal, Gillian and Nico laughed.

* * *

The six chocobos were circling around the head of the river, and everyone got to see the start of the wastelands that seem to stretch on and on and on.

A few minutes later, Elain suddenly noticed a strange jut from the ground, "Is that a cave? Sure looks like one," Genesis's eyes narrowed as he took point and led the others towards the cave.

When they arrived, Genesis drew Rapier and entered the cave cautiously.

It was empty, save for a few sparse furnishings within.

Christina peeked out from behind her brother, "Looks like no one's home,"

"Who in the world would want to stay here, anyway?" Nico poked the sandy ground with his standard issue blade.

Angeal's hand was gripping the hilt of the Buster Sword, "Whoever it is, I don't think they're a threat, Shin-Ra operatives are less likely to stay here. There's a bed, so this must be someone else's house,"

Elain looked incredulous, "Really? In a cave? In the middle of nowhere?" Angeal shrugged in response.

Genesis frowned, and wordlessly waved everyone out of the cave, having seen nothing out of the ordinary.

After a small discussion, Genesis and Angeal decided to let their sisters fight together against them, and Genesis decided to start using materia to add a little challenge in the fight.

Nico shook his head, "Prepare to run," "Why?" Elain looked curious. "Because Commander Rhapsodos absolutely loves hucking fireballs at people that irritates him."

"Uh, _we_ don't irritate him, do we?"

The Copy grinned, "Well, just a bit of a warning, you'll see what I mean later on."

So when the fight started, Christina and Elain found themselves running for their lives while trying to dodge punches thrown by the SOLDIER of Honor.

And the Red Commander was cackling like a nutjob on the loose while Nico shook his head sympathetically for his friends.

_Time skip..._

"Have everyone move down to Midgar, I'll meet you there. As we are all on chocobo-back, we should be there after two."

_"Yes, sir, anything else?"_

"Wait outside Sector 8, that's where I'll rendezvous with you all."

_"Copy that, sir."_

* * *

_Midgar..._

Sephiroth was in his office dealing with paperwork when there was a knock on the door.

"Enter,"

Zack opened the door, his face was unusually solemn, "Sephiroth,"

"Zack, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

The recently promoted First Class scratched his head, "There's something I have to tell you, it's about Angeal and Genesis."

Sephiroth froze and put down his pen, "Let's move this up to my apartment," he said before swiftly leaving his office with Zack behind him.

_Time skip..._

Zack recounted everything that he knew, starting from the phone call that Angeal received and subsequently up until the Junon incident that occurred just a few days ago. Throughout his narrative, Zack also put in his opinions regarding certain matters and incidents before falling silent and allowing Sephiroth to digest the information.

_"Once you find out the truth behind the experiments that created us, Sephiroth, perhaps you would understand. I'd suggest asking Hollander or even Hojo about it. But I doubt that you would get the truth from the likes of them."_

Sephiroth recalled the words that Genesis had told him in Junon, silently linking them and Zack's information together. 'Project Jenova...a project based on my mother...?'

Sephiroth frowned, it was Hojo who told him that his mother's name was Jenova, but with Genesis's words and Zack's information coupled together, Sephiroth began to suspect that Hojo had been lying. 'But how did Zack know all about this? Even I can't gain access to some of the more classified files in Hojo's database.'

"How did you know about this, Zack?"

Zack grimaced, he had spoken to Kunsel about this, and his friend had eventually agreed to let Sephiroth see the files pertaining to him. He was currently waiting in his own room.

"You know my friend, Kunsel?"

"The one with an uncanny ability to know what he shouldn't?"

Zack chuckled, "Yep, that's the one, he showed me what I wanted to see when I asked him about Angeal's sister."

Sephiroth's eyes narrowed slightly, "And he has files...regarding the experiments that I've been going through all my life?"

Zack nodded seriously, "He agreed to show them to you, as long as you don't tell anyone," here Zack rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Though he's already on Tseng's radar...I inadvertently made that happen."

Sephiroth stood up, all-business, "He has my confidence, shall we leave now?"

Zack scrambled to his feet and nodded, "Right this way, Seph!"

"...I told you not to call me that,"

_Time skip to Kunsel's room..._

"So...these are the reports pertaining to you, General,"

Kunsel turned his laptop over to Sephiroth who silently began scanning the first report before scrolling down to the others.

The Silver General caught several names, including Hojo, that meant nothing to him, but what caught his attention was the name of a woman: Lucrecia Crescent; and another test subject named S2. Sephiroth filed away that bit of information in his mind, while his mounting disgust and rage was threatening to pour out of his being from reading all the things that Hojo had written.

'Deep breaths, Sephiroth, drawing Masamune would _not_ be a good idea right now.'

Sephiroth finished the last of the reports and said, "There seems to be quite a number of scientists involved, but who is Lucrecia Crescent? And why was I not aware of another 'test subject'? Hojo would be preening about it unless that experiment was a failure. Judging from these reports, he has not given up on Specimen S2."

Kunsel took his laptop back and opened up a couple of files, "This is a little delicate, sir," he hesitated for a moment before turning to face the General, "You have been told that Jenova was your mother, correct?"

Sephiroth nodded tersely as Kunsel turned his laptop to face the General once more, "He's lying, Jenova is an alien from outer space, your mother was human, sir."

The Silver General came face to face with a Shin-Ra employee profile, the words Lucrecia Crescent was visible next to a picture of a beautiful brown haired woman with warm brown eyes.

Zack whistled, "Now we know where Seph got his looks from," he was instantly rewarded by a smack from his best friend who lowly chided him for his lack of tact.

Sephiroth ignored the SOLDIERs beside him and drank in the image of his mother, his _human_ mother, "Lucrecia..." the name tasted strange on his tongue.

"Why did she agree to this? Why did she let this happen to her own son?" Sephiroth's voice was barely a whisper in the suddenly quiet room.

"I don't know, sir, maybe Hojo tricked her, maybe she thought this was alright? I can't say for sure, this is something that only she would know alone." Kunsel said, softening his voice as he knew that the General was emotionally unbalanced at the moment, even if he was hiding it well.

Sephiroth closed his mother's profile and came face to face with a report on Specimen S2: Sephira.

That was it.

Masamune flashed into view and Kunsel snatched his laptop out of harm's way before darting into a corner of his room with Zack in tow as the blade cleaved Kunsel's table apart.

Sephiroth was breathing heavily as he tried to get a grip on his currently unchecked temper. The amount of rage flowing through him was overwhelming.

_'That's right, my son, they did this to us! To you, to your sister! Kill them, destroy Shin-Ra and all who are connected to it! Then you, your sister and I shall reclaim what was ours and travel the cosmos, as is our right.'_

Sephiroth clenched his jaw together and willed himself to calm down, now that he knew that he was human, he was not going to give in so easily to Jenova's poisonous whisperings.

The Silver General took a deep breath before dematerializing his sword and sat down, pushing Jenova's presence to the back of his mind, "My apologies, Kunsel, I'll have your table replaced."

"Uh...no problem...sir,"

'So that was why Genesis defected...to protect his sister from the company even though that was not his initial intention, and Angeal followed him because of Elain...Together, they wish to find the cure to degradation. What if...'

"Sephiroth?" Zack approached his General with caution.

The Silver General closed his eyes and murmured, "My whole life had been a lie...a _complete_ lie."

Suddenly, Sephiroth's PHS began to trill, and he answered the call swiftly, "Director Lazard,"

_"Meet me in my office, General, there's a mission for you,"_

The call cut off immediately and Sephiroth rose to his feet, "I must leave now," he glanced at Kunsel, "You have my confidence, SOLDIER," and he left the room.

The two remaining SOLDIERs stared at the remains of Kunsel's table, Zack rubbed the back of his neck, releasing a sigh, "Well, that went well," he glanced at the door Sephiroth just left through, "I hope he's okay, seeing the General unhinged is something I don't wanna see again."

* * *

Zack walked through the huge door to Lazard's office, having been called there, and saw Sephiroth leaning against another table, a clipboard in his hand as he silently studied the report clipped to it. 'Hmm, seems like he's pulled it together.'

"The company has decided to eliminate Genesis and his cohorts, this includes Angeal as well." Lazard stood up with a serious expression on his face.

Zack stepped forward in disbelief and a small amount of anger, "And you want me to do it?"

"No, the Shin-Ra Army will handle it."

"What about me?!" Zack demanded, he knew that there was something he had to do, that, and he could not just let this slide! Kill his mentor? No way.

"They don't trust you," Lazard responded calmly to the visibly distressed SOLDIER.

Zack's slumped against Lazard's desk in frustration as Sephiroth spoke up, "They believe your emotions will hamper your...judgement." he walked over casually to stand behind Zack.

"Well, of course!" Zack snapped bitterly at his commanding officer, head hung low in helplessness. Sephiroth turned to look at his fellow First Class and smiled inwardly, "That's why I'm going, too."

Zack straightened up stiffly, "To kill them?" he glared at Sephiroth, mako blue eyes glowing with barely restrained anger.

The Silver General only smiled lightly in response.

Suddenly, there was a loud, ominous rumble from above. The alarms revealed themselves and began blaring like mad, accentuating the urgency of the situation as the shelves in Lazard's office sealed themselves to protect precious records and reports from intruders.

"An intruder," Lazard swiftly checked his computer for the location of said intruder while Zack looked around sharply, "Where?"

"Close, Sephiroth, the president! Zack, entrance!"

Sephiroth nodded and Zack responded with a "Yeah, you got it!" before leaving the office together to their assigned stations.

_Time skip..._

After clearing the entrance of Genesis Copies, Zack ran over to Sector 8, where he attempted to help Cissnei but got sassed by Reno and Rude, who reassured him that Cissnei did not require assistance. After that, Zack just went around killing Copies when suddenly, Genesis showed up.

Zack immediately moved to attack him when an auburn haired girl appeared from the shadows and flung out her arms, "Stop!" Zack backtracked, sword at the ready, "What are you doing here, Genesis!"

The Red Commander placed a gloved hand on his sister's shoulder and pulled her back gently, "None of your business, Puppy, don't get in our way." His wing popped out of his back and he wrapped an arm around Christina and flew away.

Zack stared at Genesis's figure in the air as he frowned, 'That must be Genesis's sister...' His PHS brought him out of his thoughts and he answered it quickly.

_"Once Sector 8 is clear, come to Mako Reactor 5."_

"Did you find something out?"

_"Angeal has been sighted,"_

Zack paused for a moment, and growled out, "So, it's search and destroy?"

_"The army is mobilizing, but there's still time. You and I will find them before they do, and_ _—"_

"And WHAT?!"

Sephiroth twitched at the sudden increase of volume and pulled his PHS away from his ear before answering, "Fail...to eliminate them." he smirked lightly.

The weight on Zack's heart lessened, "For real?"

Sephiroth chuckled on the other end and replied, _"Yes, for real,"_

Zack fist pumped in delight, "Excellent! Uh, probably!"

Sephiroth smirked once again before cutting off the call.

* * *

Moments later, Sephiroth and Zack were in the lab hidden within the reactor. Sephiroth had just read another report in the mess that was Hollander's lab, they were just as bad as Hojo's reports, though not as disgusting.

"All these..." Sephiroth tossed the clipboard back onto the table where it came from, "Are false and useless."

Zack sighed, "No surprise there," he glanced at the various apparatus set on the table, "I saw Genesis earlier,"

Sephiroth looked at him sharply, "Where?"

"In Sector 8, I nearly attacked him when a girl came right out of nowhere and defended him, I think that she's Genesis's sister."

Sephiroth nodded, "I doubt that Genesis would let his sister out of his sight." he turned back towards the pod that was transforming a SOLDIER into one of those monsters that they had fought earlier in the upper levels of the reactor.

"...Abominations,"

"S—Sephiroth?!"

Both SOLDIERs turned to face the scientist, "Hollander," Sephiroth greeted him coolly, "I thought I'd find you here."

Hollander puffed up his chest and smirked, thinking that Sephiroth did not know the truth, "The degradation process...only _I_ can stop it."

"Pretty words, Hollander,"

To both Sephiroth and Zack's surprise, Genesis landed smoothly in between them, and his back was facing them, not Hollander. The Red Commander released his sister who immediately stepped back and let her brother do what he came here to do.

"Stop the degradation? I don't think you actually even _know_ what you're doing, do you?" Genesis flicked his hair, "Enough of this, it ends now!" He lunged forward and ended Hollander's life before he could even think of running.

"I never dreamed that I would one day see the end of my tormentor,"

Everyone turned to look at Christina who was staring at Hollander's body. Genesis laughed softly, " _Our_ tormentor. Us, and the Hewleys," he moved over to Christina and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, looking extremely satisfied at his handiwork.

"Genesis,"

The Red Commander tipped his head towards his friend, "Sephiroth,"

"Sooo...it was all an act?" Zack scratched the back of his head, "The Junon incident, and Banora?"

Genesis smirked at Zack, "Tseng was there, we _had_ to throw him off, somehow. And if I hadn't discovered Hollander's betrayal, I would still be playing his little game." the Red Commander sniffed in annoyance.

"Anyway, sister, meet the General of the Shin-Ra Army. Sephiroth, meet my twin, Christina,"

Sephiroth smiled at the girl he met in Junon, "A pleasure," he held out his hand and Christina shyly shook it. "And I'm Zack! Zack Fair, pleased to meet'cha!" Zack cheerfully stuck out his hand as well and Genesis rolled his eyes, "Down, Puppy, you'll scare her off."

"Hey!"

The Rhapsodos twins laughed at Zack's protest while Sephiroth simply looked amused.

"Genesis, we have to go, the Turks are coming."

Everyone turned towards Angeal who had just arrived. "Angeal!" Zack ran over to his mentor who smiled and ruffled his hair, "No time to stay and chat, Zack."

"How close?" Sephiroth wanted to know, "A few minutes away," Angeal answered, turning to Genesis he said, "I had the army fall back, Nico's with my mother and Elain right now. We have to move,"

Genesis nodded, "Understood, it seems we have to cut this meeting short, until next time, Sephiroth."

"Wait, I want to go with you, there's something I need to discuss with you."

Genesis stared at Sephiroth, "You are serious? You don't mean to defect, do you?"

"That's my plan," Sephiroth admitted, "Zack, can you handle the Turks?"

"No way, I wanna come with you guys!"

Sephiroth shook his head, "I need someone to stay here in Shin-Ra and you're Kunsel's best friend. He can easily monitor the actions of the Directors and more importantly, Hojo and the President. The two of you can work together and contact me if anything happens,"

Zack deflated, "Alright,"

Angeal chuckled, "Don't worry, Zack, you'll see us again,"

Zack pointed a finger at his mentor, "I'll hold you to that!"

With that, Zack pulled out his sword and prepared for the oncoming encounter with the Turks.


	9. Foul Plans Afoot, The Company Teeters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Various people plotting their own agendas.

Holding his blade, Zack stared at Hollander's body silently, contemplating the new side of Genesis that he had seen. Genesis, who cared not for lower class SOLDIERs; Genesis, who appeared arrogant and prideful to others. Zack chuckled, he was having a hard time imagining the Red Commander as a brotherly figure. But seeing the way the SOLDIER First interacted with his twin, Zack was more than happy to embrace this new side of the previously haughty man.

"Zack!"

The SOLDIER looked up to see Tseng, Reno, Rude, and Cissnei running into the lab. Tseng halted abruptly in front of Hollander's corpse, "What happened here?" he turned his dark eyes towards Zack, his expression stiff and serious.

Zack thus recounted everything that had happened to him after he left Sector 8 to join Sephiroth in the reactor that they were currently in. "Then Genesis showed up, killed Hollander before getting away, and Sephiroth went after him. He figured Angeal may be close as well, so he decided to give chase."

Tseng gazed at him, the look in his eyes telling Zack that he knew the latter was not telling the full truth but would let him off for now.

"We'll take care of things here, go after the General and see if you can assist him."

Zack brightened up visibly at that, "Yeah! I'm on it!" and quickly dashed up the nearby stairs that Hollander came down from, reaching the upper floors of the reactor. There he found visible signs of a fight that had happened prior as indicated by some dead Genesis clones and two dead Angeal copies among a slew of twisted metal to which the SOLDIER Second deduced was the remains of one of Scarlet's little toys or her 'precious babies', as she called them.

Intrigued by the Angeal copies, which were basically silver-black monsters with Angeal's face grafted on parts of their bodies, Zack took a step closer, completely missing the large, broken floor grate below him before he plummeted downwards, yelling in surprise.

Due to hitting several obstacles during the fall, Zack lost consciousness before he even hit the bottom.

...

_"Tell me what happened,"_

_Mom?_

_I...I want to help out some friends._

_But...I don't know how I can do it..._

"Helloooooo!"

_Mom?_

Zack's vision slowly became clearer as he opened his eyes with a groan, only to see a pretty brunette with curious green orbs in a simple white-blue dress calling out to him, "Helloooooo!"

Seeing that Zack was stirring awake, the brunette smiled happily and straightened up, "Hooray!"

"Ughhh," Zack groaned once more, and gazed at the bright light above him, "Heaven?"

"Not quite," the brunette watched her 'visitor' with a smile, "Church in the slums," Zack slowly sat up and looked at the speaker in question with a smile, "An angel?"

The brunette giggled with a shake of her head, "No, I'm Aerith!" she spun towards the direction of the broken wooden ceiling and pointed at it, "You fell from the sky, scared me." she turned back towards the SOLDIER First with the same cheerful smile on her face.

Zack smiled, "So you saved me, huh?"

Aerith spun away, as if she was shy, but her voice was still playful and sweet as she said, "Not really, 'Helloooooo!' That's all I did!" Zack laughed in amusement at her comment before flipping himself up. "Thank you so much, Aerith, I'm Zack." He crossed his arms with a thoughtful smile, "I have to repay you somehow."

Aerith shook her head quickly, "Don't worry about it," she liked helping people after all, but Zack would not take it.

"No, no..." the Puppy hummed to himself, then he snapped his fingers and grinned, "Hey, how about one date?"

Aerith laughed, "What is that? Don't be silly!"

Zack sighed, he never really had any luck with girls, he began to stroll forward, completely missing the patch of flowers before him until Aerith cried, "Stop! Don't step on the flowers!" Zack mentally released a 'Woah!' of surprise before pulling his foot back to plain wood.

"Excuse me?"

With a frown on her face, Aerith placed her hands on her hips and said, "Normally, people are more careful with flowers,"

Zack grinned sheepishly, and said, "Well, I guess I'm not normal," as a way of apology. Turning back to the now noticeable flower patch, he leaned forward, examining the yellow blossoms curiously, "You don't see a lot of flowers in Midgar, they're like luxury items around here."

Aerith nodded in agreement, gesturing to the patch, "They only grow here, although I planted some outside my house too."

Zack straightened up with a smile, throwing his arms back to cradle his head, "If I were you, I'd sell them." he remarked as he turned away from the flowers, "Midgar's full of flowers, your wallet's full of money!" he grinned at the brunette.

Aerith had a thoughtful look on her face, "Midgar...full of flowers, wallet...full of money?" A smile spread across her face, "Never thought of it that way," Zack's grin grew bigger, "Hey, how about we just hang out? I really want to pay you back," Aerith smiled, "Well, okay, I guess that wouldn't hurt," and she led the way out of the church.

* * *

Meanwhile, our renegade SOLDIERs along with their companions and the remaining Genesis Army have begun moving in a north-westerly direction from the outside of Sector 8. Most of the Copies were either flying or marching along while the three SOLDIER Firsts were hanging behind with the chocobos, two of which were currently free of their riders.

They moved swiftly in order to avoid any form of pursue from Midgar and arrived at the shoreline of the Eastern Continent fairly quickly and began to cross by way of flying.

Genesis carried his sister and Angeal's while Angeal himself carried his superior officer, much to Sephiroth's slight discomfort but was willing to bear with it for now. Nico the Copy carried Gillian and some other Copies carefully carried the six chocobos, who were quite nervous about the body of water beneath them, warking every now and then. The constant warks grated on the Copies' hearing and some of them begun to grumble about it but complaints soon quickly died off at the smoldering glower the Red Commander was sending them.

By the time everyone arrived at the outskirts of Bone Village, the sun rays were already coming in from the west, and Genesis decided to make camp right where they were in order to give the men a break.

Once they were all settled down, Sephiroth quietly asked for Genesis's side of the story, as well as Angeal's, while Gillian immediately began to see about a small meal for the SOLDIER Firsts and the girls.

Genesis calmly narrated his tale of how he found out about having a sibling from snagged files and how he informed Angeal of the existence of his own. Angeal picked up the story whenever he could, interjecting personal thoughts and opinions in places where he figured they would provide a greater insight for Sephiroth, who listened attentively till the very end.

Upon the end of the narration, Sephiroth said, "I see, so that's how it is. Did you know that I, too, have a sibling?"

The two SOLDIER Firsts exchanged looks of surprise, and Genesis cast an amused smile at the Silver General, saying, "I see that you've done some research yourself, we only found out about it from Christina this morning. She had a dream message of sorts, apparently,"

Sephiroth frowned, "A dream message?"

And so the Red Commander launched into the tale of how Christina had her first dream of Sephira during their brief stay in Fort Condor, and again, yesterday night, whereupon she told the party of after waking up.

Sephiroth looked thoughtful, "And how did she do this?" Christina, who had been somewhat eavesdropping on the conversation, sidled close to the three SOLDIERs and said, "She said she got the idea from Hojo's Reunion Theory, something about Jenova cells seeking to reunite with the main body. Basically a connection of some kind, I think. Oh, and she also mentioned that she was trapped in an underground lab in Icicle Inn, to the north of town."

Sephiroth's eyes narrowed some, "I suppose it explains why I never saw her around the labs in Midgar then," Lifting his gaze back to his friends and Christina, he said, "I have something to share with you all as well," and began telling of his discovery earlier in the day.

Genesis latched on to every word and mulled over it before hesitantly asking, "Would your cells be the answer to our degradation? Perhaps the live cells can kill off and replace the dead ones?"

Sephiroth frowned, "I don't know, maybe. I'd rather not do something that will endanger the four of you further."

Genesis grimaced, looking off to one side, "I don't want to lose my sanity so soon, Seph, I— _we_ need that cure, wherever I must find it." his voice was incredibly quiet, quite unlike the usual haughtiness the Silver General had grown accustomed to.

Sephiroth clenched his teeth together, upset. How had he not noticed Genesis's inner turmoil before? Had he been too focused on the rivalry between himself and his best strategist?

"Gen, we'll find a way, we just will," Christina said, moving over to her twin and hugging him fiercely. Angeal nodded in agreement, "She's right, Gen, don't give up hope yet."

Sephiroth watched the exchange silently, unfamiliar emotions swirling within as Sephira's profile flashed briefly through his mind.

* * *

_Midgar..._

A board meeting had been called to discuss the recent attack on the city and also on Sephiroth's sudden decision to chase after his friends.

"Well, then, Director," The stout, ruthless owner of Shin-Ra Company nodded to Tseng, "Your report,"

Tseng dipped his head slightly and spoke, "Genesis and his army approached from the North and attacked via Sector 8, with Angeal among them. They proceeded to wreak havoc across the rest of the Sectors, but strangely left most civilians unharmed. SOLDIER Zack was clearing out Sector 8 along with my Turks before he was called off by the General to assist him in Mako Reactor 5, where Hollander had been sighted.

"Right after that, Genesis appeared and disposed of Hollander before leaving, but apparently had some kind of confrontation with the General, as SOLDIER Zack reported to me. The General then decided to pursue Genesis and Angeal, and I sent SOLDIER Zack to assist him."

The President raised an eyebrow, "That is all?"

Tseng nodded, "Yes, sir, we are also bringing back stolen lab equipment from Mako Reactor 5, where Hollander had used as one of his many base of operations."

Hojo snorted, "Inferior as always, but I suppose he needed easy access to mako, and thus used the Reactor as his base of operations. Still, I do not see why Sephiroth has to waste his time on a couple of failed specimens—"

"Thank you very much for your input, Professor, but I have much more pressing matters to hear at hand." Roland Shinra interrupted the Head of the Science Department calmly before turning his attention to the other board members, "And for the rest of you? Anything else to report?"

Scarlet, who sat on Lazard's immediate left, spoke up, "I deployed a good number of Scarlet Picks, Guard Scorpions and Red Scorpions, and much of the Scarlet Picks have been destroyed along with the Red Scorpions. My Guard Scorpions suffered less but I will be needing a higher budget to replace the lost weapons, Mr President, if you will...?"

Roland rolled his eyes a little and grunted, "Done. Tuesti? What are the damages done to the city?"

"Sector 8 took some significant collateral damage, but none too devastating. Sectors 1, 2, 6, and 7 suffered only mild damage, except for some particular spots that are in dire need of repair. The remaining sectors have little to no damage, as it seems that the army was very coordinated and was not spread out too thin."

The President nodded, "Good, have Sectors 1 and 2 repaired first, then 8, the other sectors are to be repaired as you see fit, but I expect no other changes nor additions from this."

Reeve wanted to speak up about the slums, but heard the obvious tone of dismissal and answered with a quiet, "Yes, sir."

Roland turned to his illegitimate son, and his tone became slightly brusque, though it was very subtle, "How many casualties in SOLDIER?"

Lazard maintained a cool and professional composure, though he would honestly like to throw a wine bottle in his father's face at the moment, "Quite a good number, sir, but none too bad. Most of them are in the infirmary now receiving necessary treatments. But other than that, no heavy casualties."

Heidegger snorted out loud, but made no comment. He thought that, with the current number of remaining SOLDIERs, his infantrymen did a much more better job than SOLDIER ever would. But he would not make any comments to Lazard today as it seemed that the President was considerably incensed, even if he hid it well.

"Deusericus, inform Sephiroth that his targets are to be eliminated at all costs. Hojo, I want you to take up the rest of Hollander's work, though you may discard whichever project that is of no benefit to the company, of course. Dismissed."

Roland Shinra got up and left the meeting room, followed by his other board members, though Hojo looked slightly disgruntled from being told off earlier and having to deal with Hollander's mess. You could hear him muttering under his breath as he headed back to his labs, "Why in the world must I be responsible for Hollander's insignificant work? His ridiculous mess would take too much time to sort through..."

Tseng calmly headed down to the Turks' Floor, pulled out his PHS and called Zack.

"Zack, return to the Shin-Ra Building immediately, meet me in my office."

_"I'm on my way,"_

Satisfied, Tseng put his PHS away and summoned all Turks present to his office.

"'Sup, yo?" Reno lazily strolled in along with Cissnei, Rude, female Martial Arts, and Knife. Tseng reached out to his desk for a device that, upon activation, would prevent anyone from hearing their conversation in his office. After he activated it, he filled in his Turks with the real truth of what happened to the AWOL First Class SOLDIERs.

_Time skip..._

Zack entered the Turk Director's office, and was very much startled to see the other Turks there. "Uhh, what's going on? Did the President give an order or something?"

"Not quite, in fact, we're here to talk about our little case. I've filled them in so they're up to date," Tseng nodded at his comrades, "Now, Zack, I know you were holding back in the Reactor, what really happened?"

Zack scratched his head, 'So we've got more Turks on the case huh? I suppose it's good to have them on your side, plus Cissnei is nice, so it should be alright!' "Well, Genesis said that the Junon incident and Banora was all an act, because you," here he nodded at Tseng, "Were there, and that he had to throw you off somehow. Also, he only defected because Hollander had been manipulating him, and he stopped all manner of contact with Hollander after he found out he had a sister. I guess that the attack on the company was a way to get to Hollander, as well as continuing to mask the real reason of why he's gone rouge."

Crossing his arms, Zack mused, "I mean, why would he rejoin the company after all it's done to him and his twin?" Shaking his head, Zack continued, "After that, Angeal showed up, saying that you guys were coming, and that they had to go. Sephiroth then said that he wanted to go with them because there was something he needed to discuss with them, and they left. The truth is, Sephiroth actually meant to defect from the company so he's not coming back.

"He asked me to stall you guys because he needed me to be his eyes. But I suppose now _we_ can all be his eyes and tell him if anything happens here."

Reno was gaping at the SOLDIER First, "Holy cripes, General Ice Princess is actually _defecting_?" Rude simply just fixed his shades in silence, the only action to indicate that he was surprised by the news. Cissnei shook her head, "Incredible," she murmured while processing the information that was just given.

Tseng looked thoughtful, "I suppose we can cover for him, but I don't know how long we'd be able to do it."

"Not very long, sir. Remember the President told Lazard to inform Sephiroth to eliminate his friends?" Knife quietly spoke up. Tseng only frowned in response, " _Ahh, troublesome,_ " the Turk sighed softly in Wutaian.

Zack then remembered the earlier meeting with Sephiroth and Kunsel, "I think the reason Seph defected is because of the discovery of his twin, Sephira Crescent."

The Turks stared at him, Reno yelping, "Holy _shit_! The General has a _sister_?!" while Tseng looked thunderstruck. The Turk Director remembered a conversation with Veld, the previous Director, several years ago.

_"I can't do this, sir. With all due respect, I don't believe that this is the best course of action."_

_Veld calmly looked at his subordinate, "It is not in our nature to question the morality of a mission, Tseng, no matter how revolting we find it."_

_"But she is just a child!" Tseng argued, a little desperate to prevent the transportation of a poor little girl up North into the middle of nowhere._

_Veld regarded Tseng with an almost unreadable calm, then a quiet sigh left his lips, and he reached out to lay a hand on his subordinate's shoulder, "I understand your hesitation, Tseng. As much as I disagree with this operation, there is nothing we can do to change it. Unless you wish to be charged of insubordination by the President, of course." Removing his hand, Veld said, "I'll take care of it, so don't you worry about it any further."_

_Tseng lowered his gaze to the floor, "Yes, sir, thank you, sir." he said quietly. Months later, Tseng found out from gossiping scientists that Hojo seemed to have abandoned Specimen S2 as he had returned to Midgar and will be conducting his operations from here thereon._

_When Hojo abandons a project, the 'specimens' involved usually ended up dead. Tseng knew this well because the Turks has had to clean up the mad scientist's mess on more than one occasion. And if Specimen S2 was abandoned...it could only mean one thing._

_Tseng had never cried in all of his life. Maybe he had a few tears when he scrapped his knees as a child, but he had never outright cried at all. Not when he left Wutai and effectively betrayed his homeland; not when he had to kill so many innocents who did not deserve to be killed, and most definitely not during his missions. But he cried for the first time that night in his room, he shed tears for a child he barely knew, a child who never deserved her fate._

_And even if there was no way that he could have anticipated this; no way that he could have stopped the transportation of Sephira Crescent, Tseng still felt a terrible sense of loss and guilt from the incident, and he has lived with this guilt ever since._

"She's alive...so Hojo did not abandon her after all..." The Turk Director looked somewhat shaken while Zack and his comrades cast him curious looks. "You knew about this, sir?" Female Martial Arts, real name Juliet, was watching him with an expression of wonder.

Tseng nodded, "I was originally in charge of transporting Sephira Crescent to Icicle Inn, but I couldn't go through with it, so Veld took over for me. Months later, I heard scientists gossiping about how Hojo had abandoned his project at Icicle, and so I assumed the worst."

"Shit, yo. This is all one fucked up pile of shit, yo," Reno muttered as he tapped his EMR on his shoulder in a steady rhythm.

"So, what do we do now, Tseng? Just say the word, and we'll assist to the best of our ability." Cissnei spoke up, arms crossed with a look of seriousness on her face. This was accentuated by Knife's quiet but firm nod beside the former.

Tseng locked eyes with his Turks and Zack, "Now, we do everything we can to prevent anyone else, most notably the Science Department, from discovering the existence of the SOLDIERs' siblings. This entire operation is to be kept in utmost secrecy, that goes for both you and Kunsel as well, Zack."

The Puppy nodded, "Gotcha,"

* * *

In Floor 67, Hojo was sifting through Hollander's things as ordered by the President, irritably grumbling under his breath. There was a huge pile of discarded items that once belonged to Hollander, and Hojo obviously found no use for them, as his own work was much more superior.

"Hmm? What's this?"

The 'good' professor picked up several sheets of paper along with a few slide samples that contained Angeal's and Genesis's cells.

_Copy Technology and the Theory Behind It_

A sinister smile crossed Hojo's face, "Ah, the copy technology. Very interesting approach, I suppose for an inferior scientist like him, Hollander _does_ have his moments."

He carefully placed the papers regarding the Copy Technology and the slide samples aside, "This would be interesting to test out, perhaps I can make the perfect Sephiroth clone...?" Hojo continued to scheme away.

_On Floor 51..._

Lazard sat before his desk, fingers laced together before his face, thinking and contemplating.

'For whatever reason, Genesis has decided to end Hollander's life, that means that he no longer wishes to destroy the company, or his goals had simply changed. But why? And what caused him to change? With Hollander dead, my connection to him will soon be exposed, and my dearest father will have my head. What do I do? I can't possibly abandon SOLDIER, but I can't stay either. Should I run? Or should I assist Genesis and Angeal right where I am in Midgar?'

Lazard bowed his head in thought, 'If that is the case, perhaps I should speak with Tseng...' Lazard straightened up, 'I will _not_ abandon SOLDIER,' he thought firmly, and made up his mind.

Remembering Roland Shinra's orders, Lazard pulled out his PHS and thumbed a message to the Silver General:

_To: General Sephiroth_

_From: Director Lazard_

_Subject: President's Orders from Board Meeting_

_You are under orders to eliminate rogue SOLDIERs Genesis Rhapsodos and Angeal Hewley. This is a direct order from the President himself._

Lazard smiled as he reviewed his message, hopefully the General would catch his meaning of the underlined 'president'. It may be Roland's orders, but Lazard sure as hell was not going to enforce it. Therefore, Sephiroth would be able to defy the head of the Company, and Lazard would still appear to have done his job.

The SOLDIER Director hit 'send', and put down his PHS, satisfied. Now, he would move on to his next step of assisting his AWOL men.

* * *

_Junon..._

Rufus was reading about the recent events that had transpired in Midgar via the Shin-Ra News page. He had also viewed the reports in the Turks section and could not help the smile that spread across his face.

'It seems that the old man is losing his touch. Even _Sephiroth_ of all people is defecting now, my old man truly is a fool to not notice this. Chasing after his only friends in the company? Ha! Very unlikely,'

The company was just another step forward to losing their current President, and Rufus was getting excited, but he knew he had to plan much more carefully than ever, now that victory was coming close to his grasp.

'If I could use the rogue SOLDIERs—and they're the best Shin-Ra has, I would immediately have better leverage against my old man. But the problem is bringing them over to my side, after all the Science Department has done to them, I doubt they would willingly return to the company's service,'

The heir of Shin-Ra smiled, 'Of course, I could first extend an invitation to overthrow my father, and if they refuse, I'll just have to order the Turks to capture Christina Rhapsodos and Elain Hewley alive and unharmed, they would surely come to rescue their sisters, and I would simply tell them to do my bidding if they wish their sisters unharmed."

Rufus Shinra's smile grew bigger as he picked up his PHS, and called his trusted Turk, "Tseng, I have a new mission for you,"


	10. Fluctuating Development

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are moving forward from various angles and places.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Warning:** Description of a minor character death at the end of the chapter.

The sound of chirping crickets permeated the air as night fell over Bone Village and its surrounding areas. The Genesis Army had begun to prepare for sleep, while Genesis, Angeal and their sisters were still up having a hushed conversation in their sleeping spots, which were near each other. Sephiroth himself sat on Genesis's leather duster which served as a makeshift bed as his mind spun with thoughts and images, only to be interrupted by a quiet ping from his PHS.

Pulling out the offending item, Sephiroth quickly opened up the message sent by Lazard:

_Subject: President's Orders from Board Meeting_

_From: Director Lazard_

_You are under orders to eliminate rogue SOLDIERs Genesis Rhapsods and Angeal Hewley. This is a direct order from the President himself._

The Silver General frowned slightly, the underlined word having caught his attention. 'A direct order from the President...what Lazard means is...' Getting to his feet, Sephiroth strode over to his friends, old and new, and sat down while wordlessly placing his PHS into Genesis's hand.

Everyone sent him bewildered looks before crowding around Genesis to get a glimpse of what was displayed on screen. Genesis's face darkened, Angeal grimaced while the two girls looked horrified.

"You wouldn't, would you?" Christina looked scared but defiant at the same time even as Elain began to edge behind her brother.

Sephiroth's lips quirked slightly, "Have no fear, Christina, I would _never_ ever think of hurting any of you. Not today, and not forever." Christina relaxed some and sighed in relief before clinging tightly to her brother, as if fearing that he would disappear on the spot while the younger Hewley stopped her motions.

Distractedly putting an arm around his sister, Genesis was trying to figure out the hidden meaning in Lazard's message, which he had finally caught. "The President...the President...Does that mean that Lazard will _not_ be expecting you to get rid of us?" The Red Commander sent his ex-rival a look of curiosity as Angeal reread the message, "It does seem like it," the SOLDIER of honor mused thoughtfully while rubbing his chin.

Sephiroth sighed, "I'm sure that you're both aware that I've been taking non-action missions lately?"

Genesis remembered the conversation between himself and Nico just the day before:

_"But why did he accept this mission then? For his standards, they are definitely boring."_

_"Good question, sir," Nico was scrolling down the mission log, "All the missions that the General have taken lately are pretty much non-action types."_

_Angeal nodded in understanding, "He probably doesn't want to take any mission that could possibly result in him hunting us down."_

The Red Commander smiled, "So the Great General Sephiroth _does_ care." he handed Sephiroth's PHS back to him, "I always have," the Silver General murmured as he took back the proffered item. Genesis sighed, "I suppose you did, I just never really noticed, nor cared. And now that I think about it, I realized just how little I truly know of you."

Angeal looked somber, "I feel the same,"

Sephiroth smiled faintly, "Well then, we can try to get to know each other better, starting from now. I understand that I am not the most social person that most would've liked to associate with, thus leading to so many misunderstandings between us all."

Angeal nodded in agreement, "Right, no more secrets between us."

Genesis tilted his head back, smiling up to the night sky, " _There is no hate, only joy, for you are beloved by the Goddess. Hero of the dawn, Healer of worlds._ "

Sephiroth smirked, "Loveless, Act II."

The Red Commander grinned, "You remembered,"

The Silver General crossed his arms, still smirking, "How can I not, when you've beaten it into my head?"

Angeal rolled his eyes, "Real mature, you two."

The three SOLDIER Firsts then burst out laughing, while Christina and Elain smiled at them, albeit feeling a little confused.

"Uhhh, is it safe to assume that this is an inside joke?" the younger Rhapsodos asked. Genesis chuckled, "Yes, it is. It happened during the VR fight of Junon where I recited Act I and Sephiroth said the very same thing he just said earlier before we started sparring."

"It's supposed to be a bad memory, but someone finally decided to grow up," Angeal teased his childhood friend, earning an indignant "Hey!" from the Red Commander while causing Elain to laugh at her brother's comment.

"Hmph, I wonder," Sephiroth smirked once more.

Genesis deadpanned, "Thanks Angeal, and here I thought we were still on the same side."

"Jokes aside," Sephiroth mused, changing the topic, "What were you four talking about?"

Elain smiled, "We were just talking about how we're going to get to the Forgotten City while having the rest of the Army fall back to Modeoheim."

Sephiroth frowned, "The Forgotten City? No one knows how to get there."

Angeal shook his head, "It's been rumoured to be in the Sleeping Forest just north of Bone Village, it's because of the war with Wutai that the President has paid no mind to it."

The Silver General hummed thoughtfully, "I suppose we can ask the people of Bone Village for more information regarding that. But now I do believe that it's time—"

A pained gasp cut him off. Everyone turned to the source of the sound to see Christina clutching on to her stomach, as if she was stabbed by a blade.

"Christina?" Genesis, who had an arm around his sister this whole time, grabbed onto her wrist lightly, "What's wrong?"

"Gen...I—I don't feel...so good, I—" The younger Rhapsodos choked, gasping before she collapsed against her brother.

"Christina!" Genesis gently shifted his twin until her head was laying on his lap before pulling her hands away from her stomach. He carefully peeled up her shirt, only to be met by an ugly bruise marking what was supposed to be flawless skin. The bruise was a disgusting shade of purple, and seemed to have been there for some time.

"That bruise...that came from training, didn't it? I remember that it came from training!" Elain exclaimed, "Yes it did! Oh, Christina, I told you to tell your brother but you didn't—"

"You knew about this?"

Elain flinched at Genesis's tone, "She told me to keep it secret because she didn't want to worry you further!" the younger Hewley shrank back nervously.

"YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME!"

"Genesis! That's enough!" Angeal looked alarmed and shocked that the younger Banoran would yell like that. He glanced over to the Army, making sure that no one was disturbed by the noise before turning back to Genesis. "Elain didn't know any better, Gen, you can't blame her for this."

"Oh, she didn't know? She didn't know? She _knows_ that getting injured would trigger the degradation!" Genesis snarled, "Even if it was just a bruise, _any_ form of injury would trigger the degradation! Any! Hell, mine was just a cut to the shoulder, something that can be healed by a _simple_ cure, but look at me now, degrading and...losing my sense of self." Genesis's angry tirade faded away into realization.

"Great Gaia, Elain, forgive me, I did not mean to lose my temper like that," The Red Commander was horrified at what he had done, he gazed at Angeal's sister with a mortified expression on his face.

"It's—it's okay," Elain sounded a little timid, "I understand that you weren't yourself, I mean, I was there when you decided to kill everyone in Banora."

"He what?" Sephiroth asked sharply, but everybody's attention was drawn back to the younger auburn haired girl, who had moaned out loud in pain.

"Gen...it hurts..."

The materia master thought quickly, "Shh, it's alright, you'll be alright, try to get some sleep, perhaps the pain will pass," even as he spoke, Genesis was already channeling mana into a specific materia, " _Sleep_ ," Status magic washed over Christina, who was instantly lulled into slumber. Genesis gently adjusted his twin so that she was lying properly on her makeshift bed before pulling her blanket over her.

"Elain, please take care of her," The Red Commander said politely as he still felt guilty for losing control over his temper. "Sure," Elain smiled softly at the older man before taking his place by Christina's side.

"It seems that you've left out some details," Sephiroth observed as the three Firsts moved away from the girls in order to give them the peace and quiet that they needed.

Genesis looked weary as he slumped down on his own leather duster, "I lost control that day in Banora and killed everyone except for Angeal's mother. I had been rather upset then, and that's what set me off,"

"Is this a side effect from the degradation?"

Angeal looked sad, "Probably, he gets a little violent from time to time." he sat next to his childhood friend. Both were swiftly joined by Sephiroth as he thought about what to say next.

"We should talk about the Sleeping Forest first, have you sent your men to scout it out?"

Genesis shook his head, "Not yet, I will do so in the morning, everyone's tired from the assault after all. Some of them are also beginning to degrade fast,"

The Silver General nodded, "Make sure you do, have them ask the villagers about the Forest and how to get past it. I'm sure it isn't named the Sleeping Forest for no reason. The name itself already shows that it isn't a normal forest."

The Red Commander made a mental note in his head and nodded, "Of course,"

Sephiroth hummed lightly, and continued, "Now, what do you plan to do at the Forgotten City?"

* * *

_Midgar..._

Tseng snapped his PHS shut, face blank with a slight hint of paleness to it. Things were happening too fast, and the Turk Director didn't know where to start. He sat down before his desk in order to gather his thoughts, and figure out a way to carry out the Vice-President's orders without directly bringing the two targets into potential danger.

Tseng sighed softly, 'And also to find out a way to avoid the SOlDIERs' ire, I daresay that they will not be happy with these new arrangements,'

Just then, a series of polite knocks sounded against his office door and Tseng quickly composed himself while calling out, "Enter,"

To the Turk's surprise, it was the SOLDIER Director who came through. Because of the rivalry between both departments, Lazard rarely ever drops by the Turk offices, thus explaining Tseng's well concealed surprise.

"Lazard, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

Lazard looked rather somber, "I have something to confess: I am— _was_ the one who funded Hollander's efforts."

Dead silence filled Tseng's office.

"I see, and why have you decided to give yourself up?"

The SOLDIER Director smiled wryly, "I was foolish. A foolish, angry child who wished for revenge against the man who sired me; a wish of retribution against the _monster_ of a man who _wrecked_ my mother.

"With the issue of my birth clouding my senses, I endeavoured to assist Hollander in his goals, while wishing to bring down the empire that Roland Shinra built himself."

Tseng raised an eyebrow, feeling only the slightest tinge of alarm, "Bring Shin-Ra down? Have you not perhaps thought of the economic collapse that would come with it had your plans come to fruition?"

Lazard dipped his head slightly, "As I've said, my issue with the circumstances of my birth have clouded my senses."

The Turk Director nodded thoughtfully, "Still, why have you decided to give yourself up?"

Lazard was smiling once more, "Because of the unexpected death of Hollander caused by Genesis himself? I no longer have a reason to fund him. That, and I _will not_ abandon SOLDIER, they deserve better than a bumbling fool like Heidegger."

Tseng chuckled lightly, "I'll have to agree with you on that point. But there has to be more than just reluctance to abandon SOLDIER, isn't there?" The Turk's smile became sharp, "Tell me, Lazard,"

The blonde fixed his glasses with a smile, "I wish to assist my men in whatever it is that they're trying to do now. I understand that Genesis and Angeal are both looking for a cure to their degradation, and I know that the General wishes to bring them back."

The Wutaian raised an eyebrow, 'So he knows that much...Perhaps he is trustworthy enough...' "You're quite talented at avoiding detection, Lazard, perhaps we can put that to good use." Standing up, Tseng continued, "I will have one of my men to shadow you for a while, just so I can be sure of your stance in this matter. Is that agreeable?"

It was not a question, Lazard nodded, "Of course,"

Tseng smiled faintly, "Now, I believe it's time to fill you in on the true reason of your men's defection."

Lazard looked surprised, "Oh? There's more to it?"

"Indeed,"

The Turk Director then proceeded to tell Lazard the real truth behind the actions of all three Firsts, starting from Genesis's defection, up to Sephiroth's abrupt 'decision' earlier in the day.

Lazard was stunned, he knew that the Science Department was vile, but this? No wonder the Red Commander killed Hollander, 'Out of sheer rage, I presume.' The SOLDIER Director shook his head, amused and shocked at the same time, "If they ever return, the Science Department is going to be in so much trouble."

Tseng shook his head, " _If_ they ever return, that is." The Turk sat down once more, "I have a difficult situation on my hands, Lazard, and I'm hoping that you're able to assist me."

Lazard finally sat on the chair reserved for guests, "Tell me what it is,"

Tseng exhaled, "I've just received a call from our esteemed Vice-President and he has given me orders to capture Christina Rhapsodos and Elain Hewley alive."

Lazard smirked, "A ploy to get our rogue SOLDIERs under his control, no doubt, it's so obvious. My little brother is skilled, but not _that_ skilled."

The Turk Director had to release a dangerous smirk, "Don't underestimate him, Lazard. Rufus is many things, and he is even more ruthless than the President. In fact, I'll let you in on a little secret: he's the traitor who has funded AVALANCHE and provided the necessary information for them to succeed in their attacks."

Lazard was once again stunned, he collected his thoughts, "...Impressive, as desperate as he is to unseat his father, he's doing it in a calculative fashion." Raising an eyebrow at the Turk before him, Lazard asked, "Your work, Tseng?"

The Turk Director looked smug, "Not entirely, but I do believe that the Turks may have influenced him to some degree since we were around him when he was a child."

Lazard nodded, "It's not surprising that Roland had decided not to 'deal' with him, he's the only legitimate heir, after all."

"Now you know the real reason as to why Rufus was sent to Junon,"

"What about now? Is he still funding AVALANCHE?"

Tseng shook his head, "No, he's under strict surveillance from our own on the President's orders. The current situation with AVALANCHE is actually rather complex right now, so we shall just leave it at that."

Lazard nodded, "Wise decision, Rufus is still a fool if he thinks he can bargain with terrorists," he leaned back into his chair, "Money can't buy AVALANCHE's loyalty, and it isn't that easy to just pick them off one by one. That aside, what do you want me to do?"

Tseng's eyes took on a sharp, serious glint, "I want you to monitor our rouge SOLDIERs' progress along with First Class Zack and Second Class Kunsel. And I want you to fill them in on all Shin-Ra activity so that they know what's going on. I'll have your PHS tapped so that no one else other than the Turks can track your communications. As they are not aware of the Turks' involvement, you and the other two SOLDIERs will be their only link into the company. And since you're the Director of SOLDIER, they are more likely to trust you than to trust a Turk."

Lazard handed over his PHS and Tseng got to work immediately, "Done, in short, I'll help to shield Sephiroth and his comrades, and inform them of the Vice-President's orders?"

Tseng looked thoughtful as he returned Lazard's PHS to him, "Yes, but let them know that the Turks will not be taking action yet. I will try to see if there is another way to accomplish this mission, or if not, stall for time."

Lazard stood up and pocketed his PHS, nodding, "Very well, then, we'll be in touch."

* * *

_Bone Village..._

"Woah..."

Christina, Elain and Nico were staring at the massive fossils that decorated Bone Village in awe, having never seen anything like it before. Angeal looked curious at the little homes that the villagers have made within the massive structures while Genesis was busy speaking through his PHS.

The rest of the Genesis Army had begun their trip back to Modeoheim after completing their morning mission, which was to scout out the Sleeping Forest and retrieve the information the party sought. After that, Genesis had sent them on their way, with orders to hold down the fort in Modeoheim and to protect Gillian Hewley, who would not be accompanying them in this leg of their journey.

The chocobos had been likewise sent away along with the Copies, as the party had no need for them in order to traverse the Forest.

Sephiroth was calmly speaking to a resident archaeologist regarding the Lunar Harp, and politely asked if he could dig one up for the party, to which the weathered archaeologist agreed, who was he to argue with the General of the Shin-Ra Army, right? So, without further ado, Sephiroth now cradled a gold crescent-shaped harp in his arms as he made his way back to his friends.

Noticing Sephiroth's success, Genesis ended the conversation with the Copy on the other end and pocketed his PHS, "Well, I suppose we can begin our little journey through the Sleeping Forest."

The Silver General smirked slightly, "I would hardly call this journey 'little'," he handed the Harp to his friend, "Someone needs to play this, and it most certainly won't be me."

Genesis snorted at once, "Oh, please, like as if you have any ounce of music in your pitiful self!" Ignoring Sephiroth's little huff of indignation at the comment, Genesis called for the other four, who ended their sightseeing with some amount of reluctance.

"So it's time, huh?" Nico eyed the Harp curiously through his helmet, to which Genesis nodded, "Indeed, but tell me, who can play this?"

Christina cast her brother a look of complete incredulity, "You mean you can't?"

The Red Commander shot his twin an odd look, "No, I can't, I never learned how to play an instrument. What makes you think that I know how?"

Christina shrugged, "You just seemed like the type to be musical," Hearing this, Angeal laughed, "No, no, no, Genesis is more of a literature person. Given his obsession—" "It's _not_ an obsession!" "—with Loveless, I think it's telling enough."

Elain smiled, "Well, then, problem solved," and she waved both hands at her best friend.

Christina groaned when the attention turned to her, "Oh, so _you're_ the one who's musical," Nico grinned, "Cool!"

"I—I'm not—oh, ugh, fine." The younger Rhapsodos sighed as she took the Lunar Harp from her brother, who appraised her with curiosity, "I didn't know you could play, given that you were stuck in the labs,"

"No," Christina admitted, "Not very well, at least. I mean, I sing a lot, during my time in the labs. I just have a thing for music, I guess, but I can't really play. The closest thing to playing an instrument I've ever done is mess with the beakers and whatnot with some surgical tools as I try to figure out a specific tune." Everyone stared at the young auburn haired girl as she strummed lightly on the strings to figure out a tune when Elain blurted out, "She's written songs before too," to which Christina cast her a look of exasperated annoyance, "They aren't as great as you make them out to be, you know." she grumbled.

But Elain was not to be deterred as she continued to tell the SOLDIERs present about Christina's hidden music skills and all the little songs that she had written while trapped in the lab. Christina just felt really embarrassed and awkward at all the attention that was heaped on her at the moment and simply focused on her current task.

After figuring out a tune to one of the songs that she wrote in the labs, Christina looked up and saw that everyone was still staring at her. "Oh, come on..." She sighed, "Alright, let's go, I've got a tune."

* * *

_Underground lab to the north of Icicle Inn..._

Sephira stared at the man that she had tied to a chair. She had knocked him out with some dated knockout gas she found in the lab when she heard the noise of someone walking through the extensive halls. Fearful of who it might be, she scrambled to retrieve the knockout gas she remembered seeing around to prepare herself for her unwelcome visitor.

Clearly this man was working for Hojo. Not anymore though, because Sephira was going to kill him after she was done questioning him. Too risky to let him go knowing that she was awake and out of her tube prison.

So here she was, waiting for the effects of the gas to wear off and the man to wake. Her patience was soon rewarded with a soft groan as the man began to come around. Sephira carefully backed away until she was leaning against a metal table, waiting for the scientist to regain his bearings.

"Ughh...Where...?"

The scientist blinked several times before giving his head a good shake, he looked up to see a slender silverette staring at him. Her mako eyes were boring into his, a myriad of emotions and thoughts dancing in them, too fleeting to be able to grasp what was on her mind.

"H-how...how did you get out?"

Sephira continued to stare at him without saying a word, mulling over the questions in her head. There was so much that she wanted to ask, so much that she needed to know, but she did not want to stay in the lab longer than necessary, she wanted to leave as quickly as she could for the lab was stifling and repressive, being that it is situated underground.

The scientist then gradually began to realize his predicament and started yanking furiously on his bindings.

"What do you want? What are you going to do to me? You'd better let me go before Hojo finds out!"

Sephira tilted her head slightly to one side, "First off, Hojo won't find out anything because by then you'd be dead. Second, I'm going to kill you, if that's not obvious in my previous statement. Thirdly, I want answers. So, before you die, you'll be answering all of my questions until I'm satisfied."

The scientist was still struggling with his bonds, but stilled at the word 'kill', he stared at Sephira in horror, "I don't know anything!"

"Liar, you're one of Hojo's many lapdogs, you'd know _something_ , if not everything."

Sephira fell silent as she organized the list of questions in her head, when she had a solid idea of where to start, she began the interrogation.

"First off, what's going on in the outside world? I've been stuck in here long enough that I've lost track of time."

The scientist was torn between wanting to answer an innocent question and bargaining for his life. Maybe if he answered satisfactorily, Sephira would change her mind and let him go? He decided to just go with the flow.

"How much do you remember?"

Sephira hummed lightly as she tried to make sense of her sketchy memories, "Everything before I came here, and the short moments of wakefulness in between after, but most of those were just brief moments of awareness before I drifted off again. What was done to me during this period of time?"

The scientist shook his head, "I can't tell you everything because Hojo changes the person-in-charge all the time, it's mostly just making sure that your nutrient drip is replaced and that you are in top notch condition. After Hojo decided to go back to Midgar, he stopped doing any experiments on you, mostly because he wanted to focus on his projects in Midgar.

"To answer your first question, Shin-Ra sparked a war with Wutai shortly after you were sent here, and they have been fighting until just recently," he paused briefly, "Wutai surrendered, it's been nine years since you were transported here,"

Sephira frowned, 'Nine years...that's...pretty long.' "I see," she said, absorbing the information that was given, "And what of my brother? Where is he now?"

"The General is currently attending to a mission, the nature of which is not known to me."

Sephira blinked, 'General? He's the boss of SOLDIER now then. Goodness, time sure flies, last I remember he was just a SOLDIER in-training.' "Anything about Shin-Ra I should be aware of? Like their latest movements or whatever."

"Just sending the occasional task force to eliminate Wutaian insurgents who are still trying to rebel,"

The scientist had begun to relax a little, so far so good, his answers must have been satisfactory so far, and it seemed that the test subject has more questions to ask.

Sephira hummed, nodding her head as she began to pace back and forth before the man, "Well, then, what can you tell me about the birth of my brother and I? And who else was involved in the Jenova Project?"

The scientist paled and stayed silent upon hearing the next query. He did not have the answers to this question as he was merely one of the low ranked scientists under Hojo, and he was most certainly not privy to such sensitive information. Plus, he was fairly new to Shin-ra as he joined in at the time when Sephira was due to be shipped out to Icicle Inn.

Licking his lips out of nervousness, he replied very softly, "I don't know,"

Sephira stopped pacing and eyed him, "Really?"

"Really, I don't know anything about it."

The silverette crossed her arms, "Hojo must've let something slip, he likes bragging about his achievements,"

A nervous tongue darted out to caress dry lips, "True, he does, but most of the time it's just incomprehensible gibberish. Most of us lower ranked scientists don't really know nor bother with what he says, we just follow orders and do what he wants."

Sephira scowled, after all this time she was still unable to find information on how Sephiroth and her were conceived. Although Hojo had constantly drilled the 'fact' that Jenova is her mother and that she had no father into Sephira's head, she was very much sure that both her twin and her are human, not some 'higher being' as Hojo would usually lead the twins to believe. That was why Sephira was asking, she needed to know who her birth parents really were, so that she could tell Sephiroth one day before he is truly misled by Hojo, or at the very least receive some closure from the knowledge.

"Are you sure there is no major movement from Shin-Ra? Or at the very least, some sort of event happening?"

The scientist's eyes lit up at this, "Before the War ended, there was a mass desertion of SOLDIER, mostly Seconds and Thirds. They were led by a rogue SOLDIER named Genesis Rhapsodos. He just took the men and disappeared with them in the middle of a mission to Wutai. I'm not really sure of what happened, but he's apparently against Shin-Ra now, because just two days ago, Genesis returned with the deserters and attacked. Hollander — another scientist, died. Oh, and First Class SOLDIER Angeal Hewley has also deserted."

Sephira was stunned to know that Christina's twin had dared to pull such a stunt, 'I'm not sure if this is amazing or just plain dumb,'

While Sephira was still in deep thought over the new knowledge, the scientist had begun to grow tired of the questions, he needed to get back to Hojo and report the situation to him, he did not want to be responsible for whatever happened to Specimen S2. For Gaia's sake, he just wanted to finish his task and get back to Midgar!

"So, I've given you your answers, am I free to go now? They're satisfactory enough, aren't they? Everything I've told you is the truth, so just let me go."

Sephira looked up to stare hard at the man, "So eager to run back and report to Hojo, huh? I told you, after the questioning, you're dead. I'm not going to let you alert Professor Crazy and tell him that I'm gone."

"He'll know something has gone wrong because I did not report back to him, you can't kill me."

Sephira smiled dryly, "The day that Hojo starts caring about his subordinates would be the day I lick Hojo's shoes, not that I want to, I mean. He'd just write you off as some sort of collateral damage or just think that you're an incompetent imbecile who got lost or something." The silverette turned and walked to the various cabinets and began rummaging around in the drawers, until she found a small vial of sodium cyanide.

Holding the vial, Sephira reached into another drawer where a bunch of fresh medical tools were kept and withdrew a syringe, still in its anti-bacterial wrapping. She ripped open the plastic and removed the safety cap, sticking the needle into the vial's rubber stopper and drawing up a large dosage of sodium cyanide.

The scientist watched with mounting horror at Sephira's actions, he realized his death would be extremely painful, and nothing would stop the silverette from doing what she was about to do.

"Y-you can't, you can't do that!"

Sephira stepped towards the scientist with an empty smile, "I recall how you Shin-Ra types never heed the pleas of your victims, so why should I extend such mercy to you now? It's high time you tasted your own medicine...literally."

_A few moments later..._

Sephira hefted a medical backpack onto her shoulders, well stocked with supplies that she was able to find in the lab and began the long trek to the entrance of her prison of nine years. Once the smell of smoke reached her nose, she sped up her journey, knowing that she had to leave the lab before the whole place was swallowed by the fire that she had lit.

Once she had arrived at the entrance, she noticed that the now-dead scientist had left his winter wear behind. It was coated with a thin layer of flakes from the snow. Sephira grabbed the winter gear and put them on quickly before stepping out of the lab. Thankfully, there was no snowstorm and Sephira did not need to worry about loosing her way as she headed down towards town.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did a little research on which liquid chemicals would kill, and I chose sodium cyanide. Since I'm not a medical student, I'm not sure if I'm right in using sodium cyanide here, and also whether or not it causes instant death. However, I read that sodium cyanide can cause someone to die really quickly and cause great pain. Please leave a comment if you know more about sodium cyanide :) Thanks.


End file.
